To be fair, SpaceX isn’t selling amusement park ride tickets on suborbital flights to the highest bidders like those competitors are. They aren’t really comparable.
That particular mission did not have a return module. The car is still up there somewhere. To anticipate the next comment yes I know it would still be an improvement.
You ever wonder why the other billionaires with space companies have actually flown on their companies vehicles and he hasn’t?
I bet he doesn’t let his car autopilot him either.
The man-rated Falcon 9 is good enough for NASA. NASA does not have low standards on these sorts of things.
Honestly, SpaceX is the only one of those that is doing actual work. Most of the others aren’t much more than tourist rides at this point.
To be fair, SpaceX isn’t selling amusement park ride tickets on suborbital flights to the highest bidders like those competitors are. They aren’t really comparable.
They put a Tesla in orbit. If he trusted them and wasn’t spineless he absolutely would
He might believe he’s burned too many bridges with apaceX engineers and launch techs. If he was on board, one of them might take an opportunity…
That was marketing. The alternative would have been a generic mass simulator, basically just a large block of metal.
The car gets headlines and people remember it. You obviously did.
That’s my point? Him going up himself would be marketing
That particular mission did not have a return module. The car is still up there somewhere. To anticipate the next comment yes I know it would still be an improvement.