General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Bezos Sub-Orbital Flight Is Just an Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Ride. [View all]The Magistrate
(95,264 posts)Rockets not blowing up on the launch pad is pretty routine, and has been for a long while. Pressurized cabins that don't fail are also routine in space travel. That the system can be used again I acknowledge as an advance, but it is one already established as well, albeit recently. I do think you rather stretch the matter by taking the difference between the Vimy Commercial and an Airbus as the measure of the degree of improvement over previous space flight equipment these things represent. Perhaps a Stratoliner, or a Continental, might be a better baseline.
It does seem to me we are beginning to get in a bit of a rut, and scrapping more for its own sake than to support positions taken. I think we understand one another's outlook on this, and know we are not going to change one another's minds. We look at the matter from different directions, each valid enough in itself, and rooted in personal tastes. I cheerfully acknowledge I am of an antiquarian bent, and am most impressed by the continuities which can be seen over stretches of time in human affairs. I have nothing against progress, I simply find there has been less of it than people like to suppose, and that much of it occurred further in the past than people of the present day seem to appreciate.