Technology

You've written a whole lot for someone who doesn't seem to know what they're talking about.

It has not made orbit.

It has done a suborbital flight.

The difference between getting to space and getting to orbit is well, an orbit.

These statements are intentionally misleading. The starship was less than 100 dv short of orbit when they decided to cut the engines in order to test another flight regime. It takes at least 8500 dv to make orbit, which means they were already 98.8% of the way there and they still had plenty of propellent to spare. All systems were nominal, they could have continued, but they had already proved their capability to make orbit and were now aiming to accomplish more. The fact is, they did achieve the kind of speed you need to reach orbit, but rockets have been able to reach orbit for a long time, that's not impressive, but rockets have only just begun to start returning to earth.

And remember, this is not private money they are burning every time one of these explodes or burns up in the atmosphere. They were given 3 billion American Tax dollars to develop this thing.

So far, the SLS has spent 23 billion tax payer dollars. They have built 1 rocket. But saying they "built" the rocket isn't even fair, as they salvaged the engines from previous space shuttles, expending engines that had previously been reused. What will they do when they run out of pre-built engines? Prices will go up for sure...

Again, the SLS is attempting to use antique engines and essentially develop nothing new, and it has cost the public $23B. The starship is attempting to develop many ground breaking technologies, is so far achieving more of their goals with every launch. And they've spent 3 billion doing all of that.

At this point it may also be worth noting that the SLS has been in development for 14 years, the starship has been in real development for 5-7 years.

I remain in the position I started, to deny that SpaceX is doing something truly astonishing is plain bonkers.