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A new report finds Boeing’s rockets are built with an unqualified work force (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 0 points 2 years ago* (8 children)

Who do you think built the shuttle...?

Also, not defending the Musk shitstain, but focusing on "blowing up launch pads" tells me you probably know very little about the Space industry or development.

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  • [+] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I probably should have been more specific, though you're right.

    They seem to think though that NASA themselves did most of the design and manufacturing or something, instead of farming a ton of it out to various contractors (Thiokol, etc). That absolutely happened with STS.

    In fact, the Space Shuttle is where costs and time frames and project management and etc started to go off the rails - and led to where we are with Boeing and others today. It's a bad one to choose to make his point - even if we were actually still getting SOME shit done back then and the situation hadn't deteriorated so badly.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    but focusing on “blowing up launch pads” tells me you probably know very little about the Space industry or development.

    That wasn't the focus of my post, but are you suggesting that there is a nonzero number of rocket explosions that would be considered acceptable?

    I don't need to be Elon Musk, or even know much about the space industry or development to know that the target number should always be zero.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    but are you suggesting that there is a nonzero number of rocket explosions that would be considered acceptable?

    ....yes? During development specifically. Of course there is.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Let me know how that interview goes, because if the rocket you developed and spent billions of dollars building explodes at launch, you're going to be looking for a new line of work.

    I'm sure the next aeronautics company will totally understand. Mondays, am I right?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    See, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you keep showing more and more that you're not following what's happening in the launch business at all.

    So for coming up on 10 years now, SpaceX has been absolutely kicking everyone's ass. China is now coming up on being second.

    They're following processes of rapid iteration. During design, they build quickly (and relatively cheaply). They launch frequently. Those launches may not go perfectly. Sometimes they explode. But they get a LOT of data. This helps them iterate quickly.

    This is different from what Boeing, Blue Origin, etc have been doing (and at different points, at NASA's direction) - the "try to build it slow but steady, and perfect the first time" method. Guess what? That has been working horribly. It takes way way longer, costs way way more, etc. And they've left the door open for SpaceX to take over. They're quickly becoming the ONLY game in town. And neither they nor, say, Blue Origin have really been focused that much on profit.

    Rapid Iteration is also what we did early on in the space program. A lot of stuff failed (blew up) but we were making REALLY rapid progress.

    Now - once the rockets go into production, they absolutely CAN'T blow up. ESPECIALLY with people inside. That's a totally different thing.

    SpaceX just lost had their first operation failure in like a decade. After hundreds of successful launches. It's the best record I believe any rocket series has ever had.

    You also picked tbe Shuttle as an example of things working well. It's ironic - that's specifically when everything started turning to shit - massive cost overruns, massive, years-long project delays. The delays for manned spaceflight, for launch systems, were a brand new thing starting with STS.

    Blowing shit up is absolutely a valid part of the learning/development phase of rocket design.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Okay, you've made some pretty salient points. I'm not too proud to admit that my understanding of the topic is limited. I appreciate you taking the time to educate me more on the subject.

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