Re: Retro Progress
"I think you're wrong: the Shuttle was the worst. It killed more astronauts than the rest of the global space program"
Apples and oranges, man...
They could have said the same about Apollo program, since all manned Gemini and Mercury flights were successes and Apollo 1 crew perished in their pod.
Mercury was about putting an American on orbit before Russians. Russia won the race but was it a failure?
Shuttle killed more astronauts purely because there were 135 manned launches vs 28 on Mercury/Gemini/Apollo. There were 2 total loss disasters, 14 killed vs 1 total loss and 3 killed in Apollo 1. Shuttle put total of 833 crewmembers in space, vs 59 for the earlier programs.
Statistically the Shuttle was more safe than the earlier programs.
While each flight brought more or less scientific knowledge, the earlier programs were just about that. And planting a US flag in Moon of course. Shuttle hauled some very important telescopes and lab stuff there. And the also fixed Hubble at one point. How feasible would that have been with the earlier space vehicle design? (I don't know)
"Musk is more interested in space than he is in getting richer than he already is."
How do you know? He's already got enough money to live the rest of his life in opulence. Does he still make money or does he reject extra wealth and direct it to foundations or funds that are pro-space?