I will give admiration of his self-restraint to the design engineer who resisted the temptation to make the external fuel tanks on Starliner something other than egg-shaped, or even housed within a bag of some sort.

Good for Boeing, Elon needs the competition! In all my fervent adolescent reading of Sci-Fi rocketry I never expected to see the day that non-Govt. entities would actually be launching things into outer space. Maybe some day we will be able to put a man on the moon!

Glad it worked!

Was it just me or did that rocket leave our gravitational confines a bit quicker?

I would have been very nervous as an astronaut aboard that thing and wondering if a door was gonna blow off! They were dealing with some helium leaks though, so hopefully they'll dock with the ISS in safety!

quote:

Originally posted by preten2b:
Glad it worked!

Was it just me or did that rocket leave our gravitational confines a bit quicker?

It was too slow to leave the Earth’s gravity.