I can understand indifference of news outlets. After all, unmanned launches have become fairly routine. Even cargo missions to ISS have become routine. The 'what' isn't the exciting part of SpaceX, the 'who' excites us. Most people probably don't get that.
What I can't understand is the disparraging nature of a lot of the coverage. Both Slate and the Wall Street Journal had really snarky commentary this morning about the delayed launch. There were many people poking fun at them on Twitter.
Meanwhile, as someone who actually follows this stuff, I was amazed by their ability to shut down the rocket after ignition without damage. I'm also impressed by the fact they're able to refire the engine almost immediately. You can't do that with every rocket ever made. Not only is the Merlin engine cheaper, it's better (than some). That's something to be proud of.
And even if the journalist doesn't know enough about rockets to be impressed that a failure didn't lead to the thing blowing up on the launch pad, they're acting as if government launches don't get delayed repeatedly. The Space Shuttle would seemingly only actually liftoff about 50% of the time they said it would. It's hardly a major set back that they pushed it back 48 hours. Why does it seem like people want this to fail?
What I can't understand is the disparraging nature of a lot of the coverage. Both Slate and the Wall Street Journal had really snarky commentary this morning about the delayed launch. There were many people poking fun at them on Twitter.
Meanwhile, as someone who actually follows this stuff, I was amazed by their ability to shut down the rocket after ignition without damage. I'm also impressed by the fact they're able to refire the engine almost immediately. You can't do that with every rocket ever made. Not only is the Merlin engine cheaper, it's better (than some). That's something to be proud of.
And even if the journalist doesn't know enough about rockets to be impressed that a failure didn't lead to the thing blowing up on the launch pad, they're acting as if government launches don't get delayed repeatedly. The Space Shuttle would seemingly only actually liftoff about 50% of the time they said it would. It's hardly a major set back that they pushed it back 48 hours. Why does it seem like people want this to fail?