So, SpaceX lobbed a Dragon into the sky, willingly destroying a Falcon 9 booster system to prove out the abort capability of their capsule. This was a ballsy move; had anything gone wrong, their opponents in government, industry and media would have pounced, likely causing SpaceX to have to delay for months or years before daring to risk an actual astronaut. Boeing, in contrast, opted to replace a very visible, very public flight test of their capsules abort system with a mountain of paperwork that, if printed out, very likely would have massed more than the capsule if not the whole booster.
And so I was reminded of this old, old TV ad for the financial firm AIG. I’ve posted this video before (going on two years, also referencing SpaceX), but damn if it just doesn’t seem relevant.
Every time I watch this the room somehow gets dusty.