Elon is rapidly descending into madness, but this is a rather incorrect representation of SpaceX.
barely send rockets with single banana into space and we’re suppose to trust him transporting real, living human astronauts back from ISS?
Falcon 9 has flown ~450 successful missions, and around a dozen crew rotations to and from the ISS.
failed on all of the promises
CRS contracts: Delivered and renewed. CCDev contracts: Delivered and renewed. Falcon booster reuse: Commonplace.
the leech that’s eating tax payer money
Falcon 9 is usually the least expensive way to get mass to orbit, which has saved both NASA and USSF money.
On the other hand NASA itself has proven times and times again they can deliver incredible achievements reliably with smaller budgets.
The Space Shuttle wasn’t exactly reliable, and SLS is not cheap by any metric. Do you know how many Falcon 9 launches you could buy for the cost of one SLS?
Ditch the dumbass Elon and redirect funds to NASA itself.
So be it. There are single asteroids worth $10 quintillion up there, and it’s laughable to think private equity won’t step on our necks to get it first, when the capability arises, which is just a matter of time.
The way I see it, the stakes are higher than global internet or cheap rockets. We’re having this much trouble with mere billionaires, and someone this century will make Warren Buffet look broke.
There are single asteroids worth $10 quintillion up there
Not really. Yes, if you could extract all the precious metals from that asteroid, refine and purify them, teleport them to Earth, and then sell all of it at their current prices, you would be a quintillionaire, but that isn’t a realistic scenario. Even if asteroid mining becomes profitable, there isn’t a quintillion-dollar market for precious metals.
Granted, and yet I’m still pretty firmly against space privatisation on general principles. When there’s money to be made on a frontier, I feel like the last thing we want is big corporations throwing their weight around.
Practically speaking I realise NASA has its limitations, I just deeply yearn for space to be treated as a strictly peaceful public good, rather than a profitable endeavour. Now we’ve got the US using SpaceX as a diplomatic cudgel against Ukraine, and it’s only going to get worse from here. I’m not going to stop wishing for things to have been different, even if I catch shit for it.
Elon is rapidly descending into madness, but this is a rather incorrect representation of SpaceX.
Falcon 9 has flown ~450 successful missions, and around a dozen crew rotations to and from the ISS.
CRS contracts: Delivered and renewed. CCDev contracts: Delivered and renewed. Falcon booster reuse: Commonplace.
Falcon 9 is usually the least expensive way to get mass to orbit, which has saved both NASA and USSF money.
The Space Shuttle wasn’t exactly reliable, and SLS is not cheap by any metric. Do you know how many Falcon 9 launches you could buy for the cost of one SLS?
Elon may be ditchable, but SpaceX are not.
Fine by me if SpaceX was eminent domained.
Expropriating SpaceX would likely kill the very aspects of the company that have made them so successful thus far.
So be it. There are single asteroids worth $10 quintillion up there, and it’s laughable to think private equity won’t step on our necks to get it first, when the capability arises, which is just a matter of time.
The way I see it, the stakes are higher than global internet or cheap rockets. We’re having this much trouble with mere billionaires, and someone this century will make Warren Buffet look broke.
Not really. Yes, if you could extract all the precious metals from that asteroid, refine and purify them, teleport them to Earth, and then sell all of it at their current prices, you would be a quintillionaire, but that isn’t a realistic scenario. Even if asteroid mining becomes profitable, there isn’t a quintillion-dollar market for precious metals.
Granted, and yet I’m still pretty firmly against space privatisation on general principles. When there’s money to be made on a frontier, I feel like the last thing we want is big corporations throwing their weight around.
Practically speaking I realise NASA has its limitations, I just deeply yearn for space to be treated as a strictly peaceful public good, rather than a profitable endeavour. Now we’ve got the US using SpaceX as a diplomatic cudgel against Ukraine, and it’s only going to get worse from here. I’m not going to stop wishing for things to have been different, even if I catch shit for it.