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The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
  • I might have been lacking coffee when I wrote my first comment 🙂 I re-wrote it in a later comment.

    SpaceX and the other big space companies wouldn't exist without NASA and/or the military. NASA have sent quite some money towards SpaceX - I think NASA is quite satisfied with their investement.

  • The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
  • You can find videos with him discussing rocket engines in details - he’s spent years working together with a lot of brilliant car and rocket engineers. He (again, not alone, of course) somehow managed to build a successful car company and a successful Space company. Both things are by all accounts very difficult. Not likely to be done by a stupid person.

    I fully agree he’s a jerk and I would never want to work for him, but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid or that I can’t be impressed by what SpaceX has achieved.

  • The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
  • Yes, I’m fully aware of it. Very cool, but it never got any further than the prototype stage AFAIK - SpaceX made it work and has lowered the price to orbit considerably and the rest of the industry is scrambling to catch up.

    Scientists are really looking forward to Starship because of the incredible potential it provides. If SpaceX manages to get it working, it’ll likely change space exploration in a massive way. I find that quite exciting.

  • The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
  • Of course he didn’t do it himself, but according to people that actually worked closely with him, he’s not exactly stupid and actually knows quite a bit about both.

    Why he’s behaving so stupidly and handling Twitter so badly, I have no idea - he’s really a jerk.

  • The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
  • Okay, trying to say it in another way: I don’t think many people thought SpaceX had much chance of success or becoming basically the #1 in the industry, far ahead of everyone else.

    I don’t buy your sci-fi argument. Do people also think time travel will be possible?

  • The Hyperloop was never meant to be built. Elon Musk admitted it was all about fueling opposition to California’s high-speed rail project so it would get canceled.
  • I have no idea whether hyperloop is impractical/impossible to build and no intention of defending Elon Musk, but nobody thought landing a rocket was possible and SpaceX has since made it seem like a simple and easy thing. Starship seems completely bonkers to me too, but I wouldn't be surprised if SpaceX ends up completely changing space exploration with it.

    Edit: I wrote “nobody” in my comment, clearly some did, but my point was that the rest of the industry clearly didn’t expect them to have any success.

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