by Rod D. Martin
January 17, 2025
Elon Musk’s “fail fast” ethos has propelled SpaceX into the world’s dominant player, launching 85% of everything that’s gone to space from the entire planet Earth in each of the last three years.
It’s a fundamental difference in design and innovative philosophy that’s anathema to the legacy aerospace industry, from Boeing to China. And it has allowed SpaceX to launch hundreds of successful missions in record time and just a few years.
Sadly, the years-late Blue Origin, though successful this week, has imbibed deeply of the rot.
New Glenn has potential to compete with Starship. But Starship makes the Falcon 9 — and New Glenn with it — look like the DC-3. And the gap is only going to widen from here.
Watch and share my analysis, including what Elon (and our military) will do with hundreds or even thousands of Starships. The global balance of power is about to change.
Oh, and check these out:
1. SpaceX Catches the Super Heavy booster yesterday (1:11 seconds):
2. Starship re-entry after its “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” (14 seconds):
3. And finally, a picture of the New Glenn liftoff: beautiful!
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