SpaceX just made every rocket on the planet obsolete: Space Fund founder

YouTube ^ | October 15, 2024 | Yahoo Finance

[SunkenCiv]

SpaceX successfully landed its Starship rocket in what Elon Musk calls one of the company's most important launches. SpaceFund founder Rick Tumlinson joins Josh Lipton on Asking for a Trend to talk about what the landing means for SpaceX and the space exploration industry. The venture capital fund focused on space exploration is invested in SpaceX. "What we're witnessing here [is the] combination of the railroads, the steamships, airplanes, all in one. Like 100 years from now, people are going to look back at this period of time as sort of when humanity breaks out into space, Tumlinson says, adding the next steps for SpaceX is "to do a bunch more flights".

SpaceX just made every rocket on the planet obsolete: Space Fund founder | 5:05
Yahoo Finance | 1.27M subscribers | 22,416 views | October 15, 2024

[SunkenCiv]

1909? 1912? The Model T came out in 1908. 50mm is 50 mi? Feds were involved by 1913, not the 1920s, although the logistical difficulties during the war years led to more interest. The tight budgets of three Republican presidents may have constrained efforts, but the existing state two-lane class A road that runs right near here was getting widened prior to WWII under one of FDR’s alphabet agencies, my dad worked on it.

[SunkenCiv]

• SpaceX just changed everything for space launch and recovery: Elon Musk is making America A-O.K. again [10/18/2024]

[nicollo]

Just to clarify and FYI:

That NY State roads reference was in dollars, not miles. The distinction was that the 1909 law funded road construction for horse-drawn vehicles, while the 1912 law funded roads built for automobiles, marking a dramatic change in a very short time (as well as the use of bonds for the 1912 road funding). Probably 1500 miles of roads were built under the 1909 legislation, whereas the 1912 act funded upwards 5,000 miles of paved roads for use by automobiles.

And it wasn’t the Model T that pushed the change, although it was the best selling car the first full year of production, 1909 (Ford put out only a few hundred Ts in 1908), reaching about 8% of the market. By 1912, Ford held just under 20%, and reached peak market share of 40% in 1920 or so.

Ford started building cars in 1899, and commercializing them fully in 1903 with conventional, mid-priced cars, until launching the low-priced Model N starting 1906 (it was an amazing car!). Using that experience with his new low-cost, high-quality focus, Ford launched the T in late 1908.

The federal government began testing various road surfaces in 1912, including various forms of asphalt, and the 1916 Federal Aid Road Act directly authorized use of asphalt. McKinley was too early for autos, and TR hated them, so it was under Taft that the Federal government moved towards road building for cars. Wilson inherited it from Taft.