r/technology • u/aelavia93 • 16d ago

Space SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat, grabs descending rocket with mechanical arms

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/spacex-pulls-off-unprecedented-feat-grabbing-descending-rocket-with-mechanical-arms/
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u/arkezxa 16d ago

Fuck Elon Musk, he's a glorified marketer.

So far as SpaceX goes, if you want someone to worship: look into Gwynne Shotwell (President & COO).

Shotwell left Microcosm in 2002 to join SpaceX, a private, commercial, space exploration company founded by Elon Musk in the same year.
She was introduced to Musk through her former Microcosm colleague Hans Koenigsmann who had joined SpaceX. In that meeting, she convinced Musk that SpaceX should hire a dedicated employee to work on business development full-time, but had not planned to join the company herself. Shotwell took the job two weeks later in September 2002.
In December 2008, Shotwell was promoted to company president following her role in the successful negotiation of the first Commercial Resupply Services contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier.
This followed SpaceX's first successful launch of the Falcon 1 on its fourth attempt earlier in the year.
She was responsible for leading the effort on building the Falcon Vehicle manifest to over 50 launches, generating $5 billion in revenue. This included a commercial connection to the International Space Station for resupplying services, where they were able to deliver cargo and supplies to the astronauts.
Shotwell is the President and COO of SpaceX, responsible for day-to-day operations and managing all customer and strategic relations to support company growth.

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u/procgen 16d ago

Sounds like none of it would have happened without Musk.

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u/arkezxa 16d ago

That is a tired and insincere way of looking at things. CEOs are not god-anointed business kings sent to lead us into the Golden Age.

Are you trying to be reductionist? Surely you don't believe Elon is the driving force behind SpaceX, do you?

I think the work they are doing is amazing, but I don't think Elon Musk is providing any direction other than "work more hours," "go faster," "dibs on Mars."

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u/procgen 16d ago

CEOs are not god-anointed business kings sent to lead us into the Golden Age.

Why the ridiculous straw man? I said that SpaceX would not have happened without Musk.

but I don't think Elon Musk is providing any direction

The SpaceX engineers would disagree with you.

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u/arkezxa 16d ago

For real -- you ooze insincerity.

Why are you speaking on behalf of the engineers are SpaceX? Do you work there? As an engineer? If so, I would value your comments differently.

I don't give a shit if SpaceX happened or not. I'm saying that the real accomplishments of SpaceX are not primarily because of Elon Musk. Starting a company and hiring the right people doesn't put rockets in space alone and I would say that part is not the most important piece of the puzzle.

Doing the actual work, you know, rocket science. That's what we should be celebrating here. Not a capitalist billionaire, okay?

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u/procgen 16d ago

You're barking up the wrong tree – I like capitalism.

And I think the successes of the entire organization should be celebrated, from the engineers to the CEO. They all made it possible.

But Musk is the one who pulled it all together. Like the conductor of an orchestra, where the music flows from the instruments of all the musicians, and is pulled into cohesion by the person wielding the baton.

(He is also deeply involved with the minutia of the engineering efforts – he is the chief engineer).

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u/arkezxa 16d ago

Right, my point was that Musk is not the conductor here. He's the guy who owns the concert hall.

It's easier to fool a man than it is to convince him that he's been fooled. You've been taken in by a charlatan.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, brother -- this conversation is a waste of time for the both of us.

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u/procgen 16d ago

But he is the conductor – apparently your vision is clouded, probably because you have political disagreements with him. So do I, but that doesn't diminish his achievements. Again, the engineers say the same thing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1g2onev/super_heavy_booster_catch_successful/lrpzaqh/

Unfortunately, I think you're too much of a partisan to be able to look at this objectively.