Comments on: SpaceX’s Grasshopper flies again

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:33:05 +0000

Although as a member of the British Interplanetary Society I do like their motto. I feel SpaceX should approach them with a view to adopting it…

“From Imagination to Reality”.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:25:57 +0000

Jim, I still prefer…

â€œOnwards and upwardsâ€¦ oh yes and back down again.â€

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:46:39 +0000

The best Grasshopper motto I can come up with is “Don’t Panic.”

By: Aresia

Aresia — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 01:16:49 +0000

Mars is the prize and Musk has his eyes on the prize. He’s a driven man because he knows if he achieves his objective he will go down in history as one of the great seers of humanity who found the way to our second planetary home, an achievement to match the neolithic revolution, the invention of printing and the industrial revolution.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 19:59:41 +0000

I agree with Stuart. But I would like to emphasize that the press, especially the mass media outlets, MUST become much more informative and constructive. I agree that when there is a test that encounters an anomaly and perhaps makes a crater (on SpaceX property) I predict the press headline will be FAILURE, DOES THIS MEAN THE END OF COMMERCIAL SPACE?. This is pathetically and dramatically wrong and misleading. The headline should read ANOMALY, SPACEX WILL LEARN MUCH FROM THIS TEST. They should actually understand the English language and hear the word “test”. I wish the press would become a benefit to our society like they have been in the past. Instead of being like a fireman ready to inform folks and guide them from danger when there is a fire, the press is like the man in the theater who yells “fire” when one doesn’t even exist just to get attention. Bottom line, I wish the press would be and act more intelligent. But we will see when SpaceX does experience a significant anomaly in the Grasshopper tests, which I believe has a good probability given the complexity, how the press reacts. Hopefully I am wrong.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 19:48:45 +0000

Hi Kevin,

I’m sure you will agree Elon Musk appears to be constantly under the spotlight of the World’s media.

Sadly I may have repeated a comment taken seriously by a reporter who hasn’t realised yet that Mr. Musk happens to have a good sense of humour.

I think that now is a crucial time for SpaceX and he needs to have a laugh once in a while for for his own sanity (and his employees). How else could he keep up with his workload…

1. The current Dragon mission.
2. Grasshopper tests
3. Investing time and money in a new launch site Texas or where ever
4. Developing to launch Falcon Heavy in 2013
5. Super Dragon (man/woman rated)development
6. MCT whatever it is.
and…
7. Stuff we don’t know about yet.

I apologise if I have given you the wrong impression.
Regards
Stuart

By: KevinH

KevinH — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 15:52:22 +0000

It took 3 tries for him to get to orbit; he is not investing blindly. He will do what he sets out to do; but he needs to make whatever it is commercially viable. We know we can go to space, he is not the kind of person who wants to be rememebered for his folly…

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 09:09:11 +0000

“Onwards and upwards… oh yes and back down again.”

For fear of being proven horribly wrong, I can only imagine this was and I use this expression wisely “a routine” test flight without incident.

If there was an incident leaving a smouldering crater, I think the world’s free press would have been all droning on by now, alarming the public!

Perhaps the new SpaceX Grasshopper motto should read “Keep calm and carry on” as used in Britain during World War Two.

Strangely enough Mr. Musk is reported as saying he fully expected one of the Grasshopper tests to result in a crater. I hope it is’nt where somebody lived.

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