People love bringing up that Starship was supposed to be doing round trips to the Moon and Mars by now, but when has anything space ever been on budget, in time, and working perfectly on the first try? Every new launch vehicle takes longer and more money than initial optimistic predictions state. Damn near every probe and telescope is years over deadlines and often a significant percentage of first estimates over budget.
The difference is in scale. For the cost of the SLS program, which is likely to be scrapped next year, you could fund the entirety of SpaceX to this point in history. It’s also in success rate, SpaceX within the next five years will have more successful launches than any other space company or organization. They’re already more prolific than any conpetitor with a viable launch vehicle, except Russia.
People love bringing up that Starship was supposed to be doing round trips to the Moon and Mars by now, but when has anything space ever been on budget, in time, and working perfectly on the first try? Every new launch vehicle takes longer and more money than initial optimistic predictions state. Damn near every probe and telescope is years over deadlines and often a significant percentage of first estimates over budget.
The problem isn’t so much new vehicle takes time, it’s the bullshit spacex fanboys spout about every other rocket company for doing the same thing.
The difference is in scale. For the cost of the SLS program, which is likely to be scrapped next year, you could fund the entirety of SpaceX to this point in history. It’s also in success rate, SpaceX within the next five years will have more successful launches than any other space company or organization. They’re already more prolific than any conpetitor with a viable launch vehicle, except Russia.