The SpaceX engineers did a great job, as did NASA.
The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk". He did well taking the risks NASA was not allowed to take at the start. But these days he is toxic to the media and toxic to reporting, so for that reason alone the media could smarted up a little. Well done SpaceX and NASA engineers.
Elon is the guy who said, "that is the craziest idea I've ever heard, here's billions, let's build it"
It's 100% Musk that this happened, literally no one else would have done it. Everyone thought it was dumb until today. No company, no government or sci fi movie for that matter had even thought of it in the first place.
SpaceX engineers given the green light by Musk, not NASA, made it a reality. That's not to say Elon didn't make many decisions along the way in the design and development of both Starship, the launch towers and everything else.
The point is, Elon deserves a hell of a lot of credit along with everyone else. Everyone has their part to play in the success of the mission.
You’re pretending if you think anyone but Elon would approve building a massive launch tower with chopstick arms to catch what is essentially an incoming bomb.
>The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk".
Musk's biographer tweeted the pages from his book <https://x.com/WalterIsaacson/status/1844870018351169942> discussing how in late 2020 Musk suggested, then insisted against considerable opposition from his engineers, that Superheavy be caught with chopsticks instead of landing on legs like Falcon 9.
(If this sounds familiar, also according to the book, Musk is the person who suggested and, against considerable opposition from his engineers, insisted on Starship switching to stainless steel instead of carbon fiber.
Hint: Musk was right and his engineers were wrong. Both times.)
Musk is the one who makes this possible. There's a reason why neither Bezos, Gates, nor Branson are anywhere close to this achievement, despite also having vast financial resources. I strongly dislike this attempt to erase Musk from the history of what's happening (mostly because people disagreeing with him politically). It is an absolute achievement of all the scientists and engineers at SpaceX. It is also a huge victory and validation for Musk and his way of leading. Both of these statements can be true simultaneously.
The media needs to stop blindly attributing this to "Elon Musk". He did well taking the risks NASA was not allowed to take at the start. But these days he is toxic to the media and toxic to reporting, so for that reason alone the media could smarted up a little. Well done SpaceX and NASA engineers.