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Space Station grabs SpaceX Dragon ship

(www.bbc.co.uk)
585 points mocko | 3 comments | 25 May 12 14:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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savrajsingh ◴[25 May 12 17:20 UTC] No.4024488[source]▶
What's amazing is SpaceX beat companies like Boeing to the punch. That's pretty remarkable!
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khuey ◴[25 May 12 17:31 UTC] No.4024543[source]▶
To what punch? Boeing built parts of the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo missions 45 years ago.
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1. jlgreco ◴[25 May 12 20:33 UTC] No.4025273[source]▶
Built parts.

As wikipedia puts it: "Each section was designed by von Braun in Huntsville and built by outside contractors such as Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft, and IBM."

The extreme vertical integration (and pricing model) SpaceX has is what makes it special.

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2. khuey ◴[26 May 12 00:37 UTC] No.4025988[source]▶
I think the pricing model is far more interesting than the vertical integration here. Boeing has been building Delta rockets for a long time too.
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3. jlgreco ◴[26 May 12 03:14 UTC] No.4026321[source]▶
It's the combination of the two I think. (Not to mention the comparative capabilities of the two systems.. there is a reason the Delta's are not servicing the ISS right now)