> And we know the VAST amounts of cash devoured by SLS and the traditional folks who critiqued SpaceX approach.
I was going to say to look exactly at its endless money pit counter-part: SLS from ULA. Nothing will ever compare to that monstrosity that will never work: $7.2 Billion and growing [0].
Also, not an Engineer, but went to interview at both Tesla and SpaceX and SpaceX's internal facilities are jaw-dropping. People love to go on about Tesla's Fremont factory, which is awesome, but I've been to Fremont and Boca Chica. And Boca is by far more impressive; I lived and worked in Emilia Romanga in Italy, and also lived in the town nearest to Stuttgart in Germany so I've have seen my share of amazing engineer and logistical/distribution feats.
I saw them starting to stack what was to become SN3 (RIP) in real time in the hangar as I saw SN2 vertical on the launchpad which that still remains one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my Life. I was basically leaning up against one of the Raptor Engine prototypes they have pretty much just around.
I've also got a few glimpses of the Hawthorne factory from (the outside) when I was charging the Model 3, lots of cool stuff comes out there (namely Falcon 9 and Merlin and Raptor engines) they have so much cool stuff just lying on the side of the building which I took pictures of but was asked to delete by security, which I complied.
Just one note on that: Boeing is the company building the SLS core stage, not ULA. While ULA is partially owned by Boeing (joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin), they operate independently.
ULA can't quite match SpaceX for style or cost these days, but they are consistently much better at what they do than Boeing is. Their launch success record is extraordinary, and their rockets provide certain capabilities that Falcon 9 and Heavy can't match without adding a kick stage to the payload.
Yeah, having taken a tour of their Hawthorne factory, it is awesome. I didn't really grok how large the Falcon 9 was until I stood next to it. It gives you a visceral appreciation of the feat that is landing these pencils on their erasers, when the pencil is as tall as some smaller highrise buildings.
> Yeah, having taken a tour of their Hawthorne factory, it is awesome.
How long ago? Did you get to hang out and eat at the mezzanine?
As for how daunting, maybe it's just because I've been into Motorsports for most of my Life and Aerospace is the most often transitioned to Industry from Automotive I knew (as much as anyone not hands-on with the project could be I suppose) what an immense feat that was. Also I was at the Mars Desert Research Station and got to ask as many questions as I wanted about it, and I'm also a member of The Mars Society.
BUT I still get giddy and have goosebumps going back and watching highlights of the first successful landing as I saw it on the streamcast with a friend who is doing his now doing his Masters in Iceland and wants to be the first wave of Martian colonizers because of that event.
I also saw the first re-landing mission at Vandenburg in 2018, the one that lit up the sky and made people think it was 'aliens' all over SoCal. We saw it from the Eagle's Nest where a bunch of NASA and SpaceX guys watch it from and met one of the non-crew Dragon capsule pilots and you could still get an idea of the scale of it from up there as I've seen the F9, too.
But SN2 at Boca was breathtakingly massive when it stood in its full glory on the launchpad, and to think this too will be reusable but will take Humans to Mars makes feel think the World still makes some sense.
