How far we have come. I mean, that almost looks like CGI. We're hopefully entering a new golden era for space exploration and I think expectations have been well and truly crushed, generally. This is about the best humanity can strive for right now, as it's all going pretty wrong on the surface.
I'm no Musk fanboy, but I'm certainly gaining a new level of respect for what he's achieving with SpaceX and Tesla.
The issue seems to be the flip maneuver, which may be a bit too difficult. Might be better to do it earlier and give the fuel/oxidiser a little longer to settle down.
And yes, if you were to take it as part of a sci-fi film or series you might consider it near impossible. CGI would be easy enough to do.
My issue with Musk isn't that he's doing all this but is he trying too hard, too fast? We have no idea of what effects low gravity will have on humans long term, or their offspring.
The flip
maneuver is actually a success and that part has worked every time with the ailerons working perfectly. It is the engine combination and control setup because of the mass and roles of each engine getting to play nice which is the fundamental issue.
Musk is taking risks but making money. He is a bit odd but he is doing a lot of right things because he is making the tech and pushing it and trying to show value as soon as possible for investors initially. Keeping them confident of the pay of despite possible negative media coverage and hick ups and keep going forward as with Tesla.
While companies are doing their own battery tech, trying new tech Tesla is intending to lead the way, pushing prices down with gigafactories and eventually having other companies by batteries off them as well as making the cars.
Something that may or may not pan out with the charging stations having other companies pay to use those etc.
Getting in there first tends to pay off in most things if it is solid.
Mar's is a bit marketing thing and that may or may not happen but companies establishing stuff on the moon for mining or other operations is realistic (maybe not our lifetime) and being the company with the experience and reliability will be a big thing.