They did just successfully reuse a booster on the last test. One of the most powerful boosters ever launched was precisely caught on a tower and relaunched a few months later. But nope, no talent by those engineers.
Saturn 5 was obviously amazing, but we can’t use it as a benchmark today. We could do it again if we wanted, but we don’t want to. Standards and goals have changed. Both politically and in aerospace generally.
Is it disappointing that the ship keeps having issues? Yes. Does that make the program a waste? No. It will progress even if its slow. I’d rather it be late than not done ever, which was the status quo before SpaceX arrived. How many times must these goal posts be moved?
We are watching a whole new round of groundbreaking R&D unfold before our eyes and people are sitting here worrying about money. And a pretty small amount of money in the grand scheme of the country.
It is truly a shame that Elon is the evil asshole that started all this. It makes it so incredibly difficult to be a fan. But try to find the nuance. SpaceX has become so much more than him.
Until the admin(s) of the small instance decide to shut down because there isn’t enough users like mine will soon.