GRcade

Cheeky Devlin wrote:It's quite damning that it's taken this long to reach this point. Private companies shouldn't have to be the ones who are taking up the slack left behind by NASA who've spent decades pottering about in the back yard rather than pushing things to their next step. Admittedly that's most likely due to funding, but they should have been developing and driving down the cost of this stuff long ago.

Finally good to see some progress being made though. Exciting times.

Nasa has suffered from funding cuts as well as constant changing of its focus. Their heyday was undoubtedly the 60s and 70s, when they had one goal, put people on the moon, it doesnt matter what it costs, get it done. Since then different administrations have slashed budgets and their focus has been moved from exploring deeper space, going to the moon again, focus on space stations, going to Mars, replacing the shuttle etc etc. SpaceX do incredible work and its because they are a singularly focused company, Musk has Mars in his sights and everything they have done has been with that goal in mind, Falcon heavy is very impressive but it is built on their existing work and it is just the next step in getting to Mars. Nasa is hamstrung by the fact that Space is seen as "sexy" by a lot of Americans so politicians wont give it more funding, its a terrible shame as the people who work there are probably incredibly passionate about what they do, the red tape just strawberry floats things up for them.

Rax wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:It's quite damning that it's taken this long to reach this point. Private companies shouldn't have to be the ones who are taking up the slack left behind by NASA who've spent decades pottering about in the back yard rather than pushing things to their next step. Admittedly that's most likely due to funding, but they should have been developing and driving down the cost of this stuff long ago.

Finally good to see some progress being made though. Exciting times.

Nasa has suffered from funding cuts as well as constant changing of its focus. Their heyday was undoubtedly the 60s and 70s, when they had one goal, put people on the moon, it doesnt matter what it costs, get it done. Since then different administrations have slashed budgets and their focus has been moved from exploring deeper space, going to the moon again, focus on space stations, going to Mars, replacing the shuttle etc etc. SpaceX do incredible work and its because they are a singularly focused company, Musk has Mars in his sights and everything they have done has been with that goal in mind, Falcon heavy is very impressive but it is built on their existing work and it is just the next step in getting to Mars. Nasa is hamstrung by the fact that Space is seen as "sexy" by a lot of Americans so politicians wont give it more funding, its a terrible shame as the people who work there are probably incredibly passionate about what they do, the red tape just strawberry floats things up for them.

100% this.

Just a shame that after such a promising (And extremely fast) ramp up in the 60's/70's they had to scale back. I'd guess that half the reason for it not being seen as "sexy" by the public is that they weren't doing anything that grabbed the imagination like the Moon landing. Hopefully putting people on Mars will do the job.

It's probably more likely that NASA got dumped with a load of covert military and intelligence jobs so couldn't put as much focus on the bigger "humanity" projects. Bloody Air Force

#conspiracypreezy
#illuminaughty

Too many people think of space as boring or a waste of money. It’s a shame that those people are listened to, our future depends on being able to access space and the resources that are out there.

We’d still be living in trees if we listened to the fools.

What about all those poor kids on mars?

You monsters keep forgetting about them.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

Rax wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:It's quite damning that it's taken this long to reach this point. Private companies shouldn't have to be the ones who are taking up the slack left behind by NASA who've spent decades pottering about in the back yard rather than pushing things to their next step. Admittedly that's most likely due to funding, but they should have been developing and driving down the cost of this stuff long ago.

Finally good to see some progress being made though. Exciting times.

Nasa has suffered from funding cuts as well as constant changing of its focus. Their heyday was undoubtedly the 60s and 70s, when they had one goal, put people on the moon, it doesnt matter what it costs, get it done. Since then different administrations have slashed budgets and their focus has been moved from exploring deeper space, going to the moon again, focus on space stations, going to Mars, replacing the shuttle etc etc. SpaceX do incredible work and its because they are a singularly focused company, Musk has Mars in his sights and everything they have done has been with that goal in mind, Falcon heavy is very impressive but it is built on their existing work and it is just the next step in getting to Mars. Nasa is hamstrung by the fact that Space is seen as "sexy" by a lot of Americans so politicians wont give it more funding, its a terrible shame as the people who work there are probably incredibly passionate about what they do, the red tape just strawberry floats things up for them.

100% this.

Just a shame that after such a promising (And extremely fast) ramp up in the 60's/70's they had to scale back. I'd guess that half the reason for it not being seen as "sexy" by the public is that they weren't doing anything that grabbed the imagination like the Moon landing. Hopefully putting people on Mars will do the job.

Space and putting people on the Moon was part of a global power play. Wait for China to start sending astronauts further into space and then NASA will get its funding up again

Hyperion wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:

Rax wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:It's quite damning that it's taken this long to reach this point. Private companies shouldn't have to be the ones who are taking up the slack left behind by NASA who've spent decades pottering about in the back yard rather than pushing things to their next step. Admittedly that's most likely due to funding, but they should have been developing and driving down the cost of this stuff long ago.

Finally good to see some progress being made though. Exciting times.

Nasa has suffered from funding cuts as well as constant changing of its focus. Their heyday was undoubtedly the 60s and 70s, when they had one goal, put people on the moon, it doesnt matter what it costs, get it done. Since then different administrations have slashed budgets and their focus has been moved from exploring deeper space, going to the moon again, focus on space stations, going to Mars, replacing the shuttle etc etc. SpaceX do incredible work and its because they are a singularly focused company, Musk has Mars in his sights and everything they have done has been with that goal in mind, Falcon heavy is very impressive but it is built on their existing work and it is just the next step in getting to Mars. Nasa is hamstrung by the fact that Space is seen as "sexy" by a lot of Americans so politicians wont give it more funding, its a terrible shame as the people who work there are probably incredibly passionate about what they do, the red tape just strawberry floats things up for them.

100% this.

Just a shame that after such a promising (And extremely fast) ramp up in the 60's/70's they had to scale back. I'd guess that half the reason for it not being seen as "sexy" by the public is that they weren't doing anything that grabbed the imagination like the Moon landing. Hopefully putting people on Mars will do the job.

Space and putting people on the Moon was part of a global power play. Wait for China to start sending astronauts further into space and then NASA will get its funding up again

Definitely, it was only popular to send people to the moon when the average American Joe saw it as getting one over on the commies. China becoming a player in space will push the US to make Nasa relevant again hopefully.

I'd like to see what the Maldives space program has in store for us.

Watched the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy earlier today. I find it incredible how the boosters can land like they do and then be reused.

What a time to be alive.

Yeah, shame the core unit didn't slow down enough, missed the drone ship and hit the ocean at 500km/hr.


► Link

Incredible.

Alvin Flummux wrote:Yeah, shame the core unit didn't slow down enough, missed the drone ship and hit the ocean at 500km/hr.


► Link

Incredible.

Deserves a bump. Truly amazing!

still wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:Yeah, shame the core unit didn't slow down enough, missed the drone ship and hit the ocean at 500km/hr.


► Link

Incredible.

Deserves a bump. Truly amazing!

Wow.

Thought that was going to be a video of the core unit slamming into the ocean

Lockheed Martin have recently opened their Satellite Bus specs to the public. - Essentially if you have an Idea about something you want in space they will help facilitate it ( at a missive cost I guess)

Anyone want to chip in for a GRsatellite?

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/openspace

That fake tesla in orbit is absolutely a green screen. So gullible when you believe that nonsense. I love startrak,starwars as much as you lot but you nerds desperately want something to be true. Elon musk is a fraud

You’re a green screen.

Dblock

Classic Dblock

A comedy relief is always welcome.

Come on, Dblock's right here, you've all fallen for the slick marketing. I mean there's absolutely no way man has developed the technology to put something into space. There's just no evidence for it whatsoever.