SpaceX Starship booster catch

[TeePee]

Latest SpaceX hype video..

[badass]

Is he, though? I thought it was Gwynne Shotwell?

Sure, Musk is CEO and Chairman, but Shotwell is President and COO (Chief Operating Officer, and the one responsible for day-to-day operations.

There was an interesting discussion on The Verge podcast on this subject. Their 'take' (as I got it) was that Elon runs Tesla and whatever he currently wants his social media platform to be called, and that's where a lot of the ... erm ... 'esoteric' activities and decisions happen.

I'm no expert but I got the impression that while, yeah, Elon had the space vision, and the money to co-found and then largely fund SpaceX, and sure, be a public face and advocate for it, that it's Shotwell that has been behind getting 'stuff' done, at SpaceX.

Arguably, Musk's most important contribution to building rockets at SpaceX was, yes, having the initial dream, and then the smarts to hire Gwynne Shotwell, and stay well out of her way. Putting that another way, he's the 'visionary' and no doubt it wouldn't have happened without him BUT .... she's the one that then actually got it done.

It's kinda like me founding a restaurant company, hiring a word class restaurateur, giving them the resources they need, then pretending I'm a Michelin-quality chef when they succeed, isn't it?

I mean, i don't know. I don't really follow either Musk or SpaceX, mainly 'cos I don't give a hoot. The mere notion of me using Twitter/X is farcical, for a start. This forum is about as close as I get, or ever have, to so-caled social media. I did think about a Tesla at one point, but then I started finding out stuff about them and now, I wouldn't want one if it was given to me (sorry to Tesla fans, but rather you than me). So I'm emphatically not any form of expert on what Musk does or doesn't do in each of his companies. Maybe he's actually a rocket-engineering genius? Dunno. This is just the impression I get from various media reports. But then, few things have made me as cynical as the "accuracy" of what so many media outlets have to say, which is why I rarely bother paying any attention to them, from the BBC, outwards. I have much the same opinion of most (mainstream) media outlets as I do of almost all politicians, regardless of party, which is that they're a bunch of ly.... 'xcuse me a sec, i have an apparently urgent call coming in from my lawyer. I'd better take this.

This is also my understanding. He was actually quite involved in Tesla in earlier days - sleeping on production lines for the model 3 for example and in my view can take some of the credit for making it a success where it may have not if he hadn't been so involved. For SpaceX, he certainly had the vision to start the company but most of the success is down to Gwynne Shotwell. For X/Tw@tter/whatever its called he can certainly take the credit for turning the internet cesspool that lost loads of money to even more of a cesspool that loses even more money. I accept that I both think he's a grade A bellend and also has achieved great things. The two are not mutually exclusive.

[TeePee]

Launch livestream!

[AGTDenton]

Looks like they aborted for catch but we got a splash down instead... amazingly smooth!




Scott Manley review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Ri1mWpkQk

[[GSV]Trig]

Whats the TLDR on the reasons they dropped it in the sea rather than catching it with the chopsticks?

[Saracen999]

Whats the TLDR on the reasons they dropped it in the sea rather than catching it with the chopsticks?

Good question. If they've said, I've not yet seen it.

The general reason seems to be that it's extremely difficult and everything needs to be spot on on both the rocket and the catcher. Apparently, the catcher reported Ok, and the inference is something on the vessel itself therefore wasn't. It might well be that finding out exactly what will take a detailed investigation. I wouldn't be surprised if it took a while before we get told.