The Problem

The problem when people write about something they know nothing about, they sound like idiots and don’t even realize it.

So Elon Musk shot a car into space. There had to be some load on that flight; that was the whole point of the test. That much concrete — which is what normally would have been used as the test load — would have been nearly if not just as expensive and would have gained SpaceX no publicity at all and would not have caused everyone on the planet to start ceaselessly gabbing about what SpaceX can do.

Some people — all idiots — seem to think the point of the fucking flight was to shoot a car into space.

Nope.

That was just a side benefit of the mission. The mission would’ve happened with a car or with concrete or any other suitable test load.

The point of the flight was to test deep-space heavy lift and orbital insertion capability for large payloads of a new rocket configuration. And for that — are you surprised? — you need a heavy payload. Like, say, something that weighs as much as a car. But something not too expensive. Like, say, a used, depreciated car that your company makes. It’s a lot better to lose a used car than a $50 million satellite on a test run. The flight, after all, only had a 50/50 chance of success.

The only thing worse than Musk’s cheerleaders are his damn critics. They can’t seem to read, write, or understand any language known to humankind.