If they had not made that one mistake on their rocket this probably would have been a different story.

I think it's odd. Virgin Orbit at least has a working product. Virgin Galactic does not, and they still keep going and going...

As far as I know this is pretty much correct. This is why the universe is often reserved to as the "observable universe." Everything outside of that is so far away that not even the light can reach us and allow us to observe it.

VO was spun off from galactic at some point.

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tax and liability separation

People need to remember relativity is a 3d printing company wich happens to have a rocket on the side, with the pace of growth of additive manufacturing relativity has a shot at actually doing something, but I'll eat a 3d printed hat if relativity's rockets are more than just tech demonstrators for their printers ten years from now.

I enjoy the debate, and fully admit I may be wrong. An infinite number of monkeys will create Shakespeare, but cannot produce a list of all typewritten lists that do not contain themselves as it is simply a paradox, not an improbability.

This is why I compare to pi. You can find an infinite number of 1s, infinite number of 14159s an infinite number of a million digits of pi, but it does not repeat. So if you say an exact earth is 15 digits long then yes you will find an infinite number of those digits (and every other combination of 15 digits). But you will not find anywhere that pi starts at 14159 runs any distance and then repeats 14159 and on exactly. How does this relate to the copy of earth? Earth has influenced and been influenced by everything within 14 billion light years, so 14 digits of pi let's say, you can certainly find an infinite number of those, but at the edge of that 14 billion years those influenced objects have been influencing things for 14 billion years as well. (I'll grant that we're probably getting into less than plank lengths so I'll admit I'm wrong here, but hear me out anyway) the continuous expansion of the sphere of influence encompasses the entire infinite universe in this way. So in order to create an exact copy, with the same history, same future, same influence you need a copy of the whole universe, the entire length of pi... And pi does not repeat, though it is infinite.

Anything less than an entire universe copy will eventually diverge from our earth (perhaps after the heat death of the universe and be really really really hard to notice but would be different none the less)

If you are talking about a multiverse, infinite big bangs, then clearly yes this happening once is proof it is possible, and would happen infinite more times.

If the size of your copy is infinite you need a new infinite universe to put it in.

The other point I'd like to raise is that not everything is random, so something like the same earth but I'm left handed may not be a possibility. The genetics of my parents may not be capable of creating left handed children, and the mutations that would create left handedness probably require several other changes to the world, plus the experiences I would have being left handed my entire life would shape me into a different person with different thoughts.

So the exact way the earth was assembled is a cause and effect relationship, without one you don't get the other. If you don't care what history the atoms of earth had before assembly then you can find infinite earths, but I argue that is not an exact copy.

Thank you for your thoughtful and respectful responses.

"Technically made it to orbit if only briefly." No need for an explanation but all I thought of upon reading that is the humorous "only a little pregnant" :)

Relativity hasn’t done an orbital launch yet, let alone prove that they’re a viable competitor. Even one or two orbital launches doesn’t prove much, as Virgin Orbit demonstrates.

Stoke looks good to me, but of course they have not proven much so far. I also would not rule out Firefly.

What about Firefly? They've technically made it to orbit if only briefly and not the one they wanted, which while not a success at least shows progress over companies that haven't gotten even that far, and if I recall correctly also have some kind of deal to sell some of their engines to Northrop Grumman?

Relativity sounds very cool with their 3d printing thing and I really want them to be successful especially on account of that probably leading to some interesting technological development, but surely trying new things like that also makes them a somewhat less safe bet than companies using more conventional rocket building techniques?

I would propose we've reached the end of the beginning. The VC fueled smallsat gold rush has ended; only the best positioned companies will survive.

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Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.
This is one of those things in life I want to be so wrong about, but it really seems like Starship will never actually fly to orbit. It's almost like there has been a conspiracy to keep man off the moon for 50 years...

Can't help but be pessimistic being 40 years old, growing up hearing about the space race, but in my lifetime seeing almost no progress, but in fact regression.

Apparently they’re very close to getting their launch license and already have a date for launch. They’re putting the finishing touches on the booster, starship, and launch mount right now

It is not existential dread, I'm just really into space. It fascinates me, but it is also so terrifyingly big. It would just explain why we can't find life much of anywhere, because not only would life be far apart but also different periods of time. The universe just doesn't make any sense, but that's what is so fascinating about it and beautiful.

That's honestly why there have been thousands of religions because some things just don't make sense at all. We just keep thinking everything has to come from somewhere, but what if that isn't the case? Of course, it would change everything we thought we knew but would open up the door to so much information that could advance our knowledge about space.

The fear I have is the thought that everything we know is wrong. Like I said, I'm no scientist, so I have no way to prove this theory, but the truth is I don't really know how we could prove anything. I do know that once we have a full understanding of how the universe works, human civilization would change.

Why is it taking so damn long to do anything? We'll all be dead before Starship actually reaches orbit.
There has been so much talk, but thats all it is, talk, let's do something already.

Ah, we've reached the beginning of the end, it seems. It was always somewhat questionable whether they could make their business case close, either for demand reasons or because this tech doesn't scale up to let you launch larger satellites.

Starship changes the game entirely. With relatively low cost per kg to orbit and huge capacity, the focus will go away from spending tons of money optimizing the satellite. This is like the RAM revolution on computers. As we moved from expensive limited RAM to cheap, plentiful RAM, faster and simpler programming using higher level languages/compilers took over from slower low level programming.

RELATIVITY is only feasible competitor with launch capabilities.

I feel like you fundamentally misunderstand my point, which I should remind you isn't even my point but instead a generally accepted property of infinity. It's literally "an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters", this is the exact sort of thing that saying is about.

Nothing you've said is downright impossible, so straight up mathematically, as in "we can prove this with math" and not "this is a difference of equally credible opinions", that makes it eventual. Do the stars and shapes in the sky need to match? That's less probable, only, not impossible, so it STILL happens an infinite number of times. There are an infinite number of exactly-like-earth copies staring at an infinite number of identical-to-ours-skies because that's ONLY fantastically unlikely, not impossible, and given an infinite number of opportunities to happen, it will, according to the math, according to presently considered "proven" properties of infinity, happen an infinite number of times.

I am trying to be super clear here, we do not disagree, you are simply wrong. You can believe or not believe whatever you want, go nuts, but according to math, the people who study math, and the fundamental rules of probability (which is just math), this is how a genuinely infinite universe would work. None of this is opinion. These are the facts about infinity.

I'm not trying to be rude or dismissive or condescending here, but you're not arguing with me, you're arguing with the institution of "math", this is not what I say, this is what we find when we actually sit down to calculate how infinity works. I'm sorry, genuinely, but you're just wrong here.

They tried. No one would take it, even for free.