How long will it take to rebuild Blue Origin's launch pad?(arstechnica.com)

14 pointsby rbanffy5 hours ago3 comments

ramaseshanmsan hour ago
In order for rocket launches to reach 1000+ per year in a decade, we need more innovations and business models in launch pads. 18 months to restore a launchpad is going to hamper progress significantly. We need to build as many launchpads as we can and allow private companies to rent them. Ofcourse each rocket design and their launchpads are intricately coupled by various factors, and this would make building generic launchpads a bit difficult. But the oppurtunity and necessity exists nonetheless. Blue Origin would agree until the next 18 months.
- dieselgate6 minutes ago
  I'm a layperson when it comes to launchpads and aerospace but "we need to build as many launchpads as we can" seems quite spatially demanding? With all the public push-back around data centers and large fulfillment centers it seems an uphill climb. I am genuinely curious to the constraints here as, additionally, I read an article about the large environmental impact of SpaceX (?) debris falling onto public land in the outside vicinity of their launch area.
  From environmental, staffing and practical standpoints it may make sense to condense the launchpads in a single area. Just spitballing here and am curious to learn more.
drob5183 hours ago
As an engineer, I have a lot of respect and admiration for the SpaceX and Blue Origin teams. All engineering is inherently difficult and even more so when you’re doing it on a big stage. On days when I made a mistake on a hardware design, I might have let some magic smoke out of one of the chips on the board. But it didn’t make the global news feed. Not only are these folks solving really hard problems, they are doing so in public, with lots of cameras watching.
aaron6953 hours ago
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