Comment by fsloth
6 days ago
Audience? You mean all the space clients like Nasa, DoD and zillions of new space satellite vendors like IceEye etc? The public stream is nice to have but not critical.
I personally felt it was obvious when the countdown was reset. IMHO the show before countdown from 10s to zero is just filler.
Literal audience. It’s a public broadcast/stream with a director and host and production design. It’s a deliberate choice to include it as part of their venture. There is value in the positive public opinion of the launch and coverage.
They have some production value in the stream though, so it looks like they’re trying to make it appealing. It’s probably a recruitment tool for them.
Audience as in taxpayers perhaps.
Whether informing the public directly or indirectly by communicating with the press about the products they want public agencies to purchase isn't critical, but it could be important. Having a public that already warmly embraces your company, or at least is warmly embraced by those that might be vocal in support or not, could make some projects easier to sell vs. a public that is indifferent or even hostile.
There was never harm in positive publicity - even though I think the ”new space” operators targets commercial payloads foremost. Blue origin would not become Boeing but a logistical service provider, something like Maersk, chugging in the background.