People are cheerleading this fairly mundane flight (after a series of hilarious disasters, and there are more to follow I promise) simply because the idea of corporate space flight fits in with their masturbatory Atlas Shrugged fantasies.
I find it sickening for free market fundamentalists to be celebrating this whilst the rest of reality shows their belief system to be incredibly damaging. I mean, how many banks have had to be bailed out recently? How many have lost their homes?
Perhaps I should take your lead then. Any articles about the Shenzhou programme (which, btw, is doing pretty well to cost only 20 times as much as Musks effort considering how much more they are doing) are dogged with comments about 'chinks' and how they must be faking it because they couldn't possibly grasp high technology, followed by some comments about Tibet by people who get awfully defensive about Iraq. It gets pretty ugly.
The retards saying that Falcon 1 is some revolution in price need to shut the fuck up and check their facts.
Falcon 9 might beat (well, equal) Proton for price/kg if, repeat IF, it ever flies. This joker has got the simplest possible liquid fueled rocket flying after blowing up three of them, it will at least take him a while to figure out how to cluster engines.
But after all this work he will only be able to equal the price of the old Russia stalwart, whats the fucking point? Nobody in their right mind will buy a launch from a billionaire with too much time on his hands when they can choose a far more proven launcher.
Did you just mention a character from "Atlas Shrugged"? You do realise that makes you a self important retard, don't you?
Why will he swim in money? The global economy is in a bit of a state right now and I don't think many people are going to be that keen in putting their money into a launcher with a 75% failure rate.
Looking what the Big Nasty State of China just did, private enterprise is looking positively lame. Even with this launch, Musk's rocket still has only a 25% success rate and can only launch a few kilos into orbit.
All you Ayn Rand fanboys seeking proof of the supremacy of the private sector, this is not it. If you want to really put your beliefs to the test, I suggest you look at the banking sector.
Why am I being so rough? Slashdotters seem more than willing to jump on Elon Musk's "entrepreneurial" cock but at the same time make racist statements when the Chinese government achieves a far more significant space milestone. Don't expect everyone to fall at the feet of this guy simply because he fits in with your ideological predispositions; he is quite far behind.
It isn't racist to criticise the PRC, its just a bit dumb when you look at what they are achieving with what is still really a developing economy.
Yeah, they suck balls on human rights, but human rights don't pay the bills
Chinese people seem genuinely interested in their space programme (admittedly this is from someone who has never set foot in China) - national pride on this level isn't something to be sniffed at. China isn't looking to best the US just yet, they are just looking to get some political capital and motivate their population by showing they can equal the achievements of the leading nation - and in that they have been 100% successful.
What "free market principles" are there in Linux? Going on strict "free market principles" it wouldn't even exist, as people are being economically irrational giving away their labour (which has amounted to billions of dollars worth now) for free?
Seems to me "bribing low-income Venezuelans with his petrodollars" is a dysphemism for "distributing the countries oil wealth fairly" which I have no problem. And you mention NEP without referring to War Communism, showing you know nothing of significance about the Bolshevik revolution.
A couple of pictures without date or context might tug at the heartstrings a little, but you would do well to stick with numbers;
Although commonly thought to be a command economy, government spending as a percentage of GDP in Venezuela in 2007 was 30%, smaller than some capitalist countries such as France (49%) and Sweden (52%). According to official sources, the percentage of people below the national poverty line has decreased significantly during the Chavez years, from 48.1% in 2002 to 12.3% in 2007.[3]
Regardless of what you think of the source, it has the benefit of being a quantifiable statement, rather than a set of pictures which tell you nothing about the state of a country.
I have no evidence you are from Venezuela. I have no evidence of your economic status. I simply have your unsubstantiated statements - and the fact you made the very hysterical comparison I mentioned was being made by the elite of Venezuela. I heard a business owner in Venezuela, with a straight face, compare the current situation to the Bolshevik revolution DESPITE THE FACT HE STILL OWNED HIS BUSINESS. The Venezuelan elite are comically shrill when it comes to complaining about their lost privileges, and you have simply provided an example (if you are indeed Venezuelan at all).
Although its popular on both left and right to demonise Chavez, I think his rule will have a long term positive effect. Regardless of the current state of Venezuela, the Missions he created are contributing to a healthier and better educated population which is the foundation of future success.
I predict he will be out in a few years, and Venezuela will continue on a roughly social democratic route. The idea that he is turning it into another Cuba is just absurd hysterical screeching from the elite he has pissed off by treating the Venezuelan poor like human beings for a change.
I am seeing a lot of uninformed, and often racist, sentiment regarding this. Here are the facts.
1. This is not a Russian capsule. The three module shape is dictated by the principles of capsule design in general, not by China simply buying a set of blueprints
2. They are not moving that slowly, they are simply being economical with the number of missions they fly. It took Russia and the US 4 years to get from men in space to spacewalks, it has taken China 5 years.
3. Their spending money on this whilst there are *gasp* still poor people on China is not something that can be criticised from a country bailing out wall street whilst letting the poor rot. At least Chinese people will eventually benefit from space technology. Who will benefit from bankers being insulated from the consequences of their actions? Everywhere has inequality. No reason to crucify China specifically for it.
4. Shenzhou is the most technologically advanced manned spacecraft flying. The Shuttle has more capability but it is nearing the end of its life and when it retires, Americans better get used to play to second fiddle to China for a while.
5. Being racist makes you a dick. Chinese people are just as capable of this as you are.
The UK is lagging behind on wired broadband infrastructure, but its phone infrastructure is pretty decent. At some point could the country go truly wireless?
Agreed, there seems to be nothing to check the think-of-the-children insanity that is allowing our government (and the identical copy of it laughably called an opposition) to crap on every liberty going.
Slashdot Mirror
If you had 165kg to put in orbit, you would piggy back it on someone elses larger satellite. Probably a Proton tbh.
Dnepr
Depends what party.
People are cheerleading this fairly mundane flight (after a series of hilarious disasters, and there are more to follow I promise) simply because the idea of corporate space flight fits in with their masturbatory Atlas Shrugged fantasies.
I find it sickening for free market fundamentalists to be celebrating this whilst the rest of reality shows their belief system to be incredibly damaging. I mean, how many banks have had to be bailed out recently? How many have lost their homes?
Please don't compare the Falcon 1 to the R7, because I don't want to piss myself laughing then have to change my trousers.
Ooops:
http://www.spaceandtech.com/spacedata/elvs/dnepr_sum.shtml
Preempted by teh eveel commies once again
Why do you think either will make it?
Clustering 9 engines considering the shit they went through getting one to work. Its going to be some pretty fireworks.
Perhaps I should take your lead then. Any articles about the Shenzhou programme (which, btw, is doing pretty well to cost only 20 times as much as Musks effort considering how much more they are doing) are dogged with comments about 'chinks' and how they must be faking it because they couldn't possibly grasp high technology, followed by some comments about Tibet by people who get awfully defensive about Iraq. It gets pretty ugly.
Since when is 165kg in orbit a giant leap?
Why? So there can be advertising on the face of the moon?
Why do we 'need' tacky, crappy private space companies firing off rockets that fail 3/4 of the time?
It wouldn't be the first think NASA has thrown money at that didn't work out, would it?
And it would of course depend on Musk being able to make Falcon 9 work; far from certain.
Falcon 1: $7 million/165kg = $42,424/kg
Russian Proton: $85 million/21,600kg = $4,302/kg
The retards saying that Falcon 1 is some revolution in price need to shut the fuck up and check their facts.
Falcon 9 might beat (well, equal) Proton for price/kg if, repeat IF, it ever flies. This joker has got the simplest possible liquid fueled rocket flying after blowing up three of them, it will at least take him a while to figure out how to cluster engines.
But after all this work he will only be able to equal the price of the old Russia stalwart, whats the fucking point? Nobody in their right mind will buy a launch from a billionaire with too much time on his hands when they can choose a far more proven launcher.
Did you just mention a character from "Atlas Shrugged"? You do realise that makes you a self important retard, don't you?
Why will he swim in money? The global economy is in a bit of a state right now and I don't think many people are going to be that keen in putting their money into a launcher with a 75% failure rate.
Just because there is a Wikipedia article about it, doesn't mean it will even become a reality.
Looking what the Big Nasty State of China just did, private enterprise is looking positively lame. Even with this launch, Musk's rocket still has only a 25% success rate and can only launch a few kilos into orbit.
All you Ayn Rand fanboys seeking proof of the supremacy of the private sector, this is not it. If you want to really put your beliefs to the test, I suggest you look at the banking sector.
Why am I being so rough? Slashdotters seem more than willing to jump on Elon Musk's "entrepreneurial" cock but at the same time make racist statements when the Chinese government achieves a far more significant space milestone. Don't expect everyone to fall at the feet of this guy simply because he fits in with your ideological predispositions; he is quite far behind.
It isn't racist to criticise the PRC, its just a bit dumb when you look at what they are achieving with what is still really a developing economy.
Yeah, they suck balls on human rights, but human rights don't pay the bills
Chinese people seem genuinely interested in their space programme (admittedly this is from someone who has never set foot in China) - national pride on this level isn't something to be sniffed at. China isn't looking to best the US just yet, they are just looking to get some political capital and motivate their population by showing they can equal the achievements of the leading nation - and in that they have been 100% successful.
What "free market principles" are there in Linux? Going on strict "free market principles" it wouldn't even exist, as people are being economically irrational giving away their labour (which has amounted to billions of dollars worth now) for free?
Seems to me "bribing low-income Venezuelans with his petrodollars" is a dysphemism for "distributing the countries oil wealth fairly" which I have no problem. And you mention NEP without referring to War Communism, showing you know nothing of significance about the Bolshevik revolution.
A couple of pictures without date or context might tug at the heartstrings a little, but you would do well to stick with numbers;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_venezuela
Regardless of what you think of the source, it has the benefit of being a quantifiable statement, rather than a set of pictures which tell you nothing about the state of a country.
I have no evidence you are from Venezuela. I have no evidence of your economic status. I simply have your unsubstantiated statements - and the fact you made the very hysterical comparison I mentioned was being made by the elite of Venezuela. I heard a business owner in Venezuela, with a straight face, compare the current situation to the Bolshevik revolution DESPITE THE FACT HE STILL OWNED HIS BUSINESS. The Venezuelan elite are comically shrill when it comes to complaining about their lost privileges, and you have simply provided an example (if you are indeed Venezuelan at all).
You are middle class. I rest my case
Although its popular on both left and right to demonise Chavez, I think his rule will have a long term positive effect. Regardless of the current state of Venezuela, the Missions he created are contributing to a healthier and better educated population which is the foundation of future success.
I predict he will be out in a few years, and Venezuela will continue on a roughly social democratic route. The idea that he is turning it into another Cuba is just absurd hysterical screeching from the elite he has pissed off by treating the Venezuelan poor like human beings for a change.
I am seeing a lot of uninformed, and often racist, sentiment regarding this. Here are the facts.
1. This is not a Russian capsule. The three module shape is dictated by the principles of capsule design in general, not by China simply buying a set of blueprints
2. They are not moving that slowly, they are simply being economical with the number of missions they fly. It took Russia and the US 4 years to get from men in space to spacewalks, it has taken China 5 years.
3. Their spending money on this whilst there are *gasp* still poor people on China is not something that can be criticised from a country bailing out wall street whilst letting the poor rot. At least Chinese people will eventually benefit from space technology. Who will benefit from bankers being insulated from the consequences of their actions? Everywhere has inequality. No reason to crucify China specifically for it.
4. Shenzhou is the most technologically advanced manned spacecraft flying. The Shuttle has more capability but it is nearing the end of its life and when it retires, Americans better get used to play to second fiddle to China for a while.
5. Being racist makes you a dick. Chinese people are just as capable of this as you are.
The UK is lagging behind on wired broadband infrastructure, but its phone infrastructure is pretty decent. At some point could the country go truly wireless?
Agreed, there seems to be nothing to check the think-of-the-children insanity that is allowing our government (and the identical copy of it laughably called an opposition) to crap on every liberty going.