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Comment by kennywinker | Hacker News Reader

So did blue origin, and that was started a couple years before spacex. I suspect this is more the case of an idea that's time came, rather than any particular feat of genius or insight by a company founder. Once you have the computing power + speed, and the built-up engineering knowledge and tools, there's nothing stopping anyone with a half a billion in government funding from building something like that.

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> In 1999, after watching the rocketry biopic film October Sky, Bezos discussed forming a space company with science-fiction author Neal Stephenson.[23][24] Blue Origin was founded in 2000 in Kent, Washington, and began developing both rocket propulsion systems and launch vehicles.[25] Since the founding, the company was quite secretive about its plans[26][27] and emerged from its "self-imposed silence" only after 2015.[25] .... As early as 2005, Bezos had discussed plans to create a vertical-takeoff and landing spaceship called New Shepard. Plans for New Shepard were initially kept quiet, but Blue Origin's website indicated Bezos' desire to, "lower the cost of spaceflight so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin

I had no idea. I always assumed he was inspired by SpaceX. October Sky is a great movie btw.

Their rocket only went up and down. Weather balloons do that too. Not the same as an orbital rocket.

Delta Clipper landed 25 years ago, too. Vertical landings of suborbital rockets aren't anything new. Reuse of orbital rockets are.

Blue Origin has accomplished practically nothing compared to SpaceX, even if they "landed a rocket before SpaceX". In the 7 years since New Shephard first flew, they've not flown anything new. To this date, BO has not launched a single gram into orbit.

For comparison, 7 years after Falcon 1 first flew in 2006, SpaceX had flown F9 v1.1 and had built a spacecraft that flew to the ISS.

That is to be expected since SpaceX is where all the NASA funding went along with most of the talent previously working on VTVL technology.

It is not hard to imagine an alternative world where Elon Musk had nothing to do with the SpaceX company and the same achievements would have been reach. Or even an alternative world where the NASA funding would have gone to a completely different company, or—yet even—a world where NASA would have developed this technology them selfs (hiring the same experts off course).

All is to say that Elon Musk is not some essential figure in the development of VTVL rockets. Rocket engineers would have developed it regardless in any world where the Space Shuttle is sunset.

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