Space Exploration

Are NASA's future missions and budget justified?

  • It's worth the time and expenditures

    Votes: 222 65.9%
  • Complete waste of money

    Votes: 41 12.2%
  • We need to explore, but not at the current cost

    Votes: 74 22.0%

  • Total voters
    337
Apparently we are in a holding pattern. Word is the FAA pulled the TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) that had been issued to SpaceX.

SpaceX will have to refile with the FAA for flight today.

Not sure if it's related but I mentioned earlier that when the Biden Administration took over the FAA might not be so supportive of SpaceX.
 
Yeah, they'll kill off SpaceX in favor of the established contractors.

And Musk will move SpaceX to another nation who would welcome him (and the metric ass-ton of money he brings) with open arms.

For "Big Tech" and "Big Business" he's surprisingly libertarian in his thoughts on the government.

But I wouldn't doubt in the least if the tradition big boys tried to shove him out of the market.
 
And Musk will move SpaceX to another nation who would welcome him (and the metric ass-ton of money he brings) with open arms.

For "Big Tech" and "Big Business" he's surprisingly libertarian in his thoughts on the government.

But I wouldn't doubt in the least if the tradition big boys tried to shove him out of the market.

Isn't SpaceX's biggest customer NASA and the US .gov?
 
Isn't SpaceX's biggest customer NASA and the US .gov?

Yes and no. It's kind of subjective. Yes, they are the largest single customer, but not the majority of their income. I think about 40% of their revenue comes from the .gov side of things, but they are pretty much the cheapest (and most reliable) company in the game outside of China. China is marginally cheaper, but not as reliable. So, SpaceX gets the lion's share of commercial launch contracts from the private sector.

Anyway, they still hold the commercial resupply contracts for the ISS and the Commercial Crew still has flights to go, but they are doing it cheaper and quicker than the competition. The next round of those contracts are coming up somewhat soon and obviously, someone saving the government a few bucks, well, we just can't have that.

If the .gov was stupid enough to cut off contracts to him and go back exclusively to ULA, Boeing, Northrop, etc, he'd have a shortfall, but I can flat guarantee you he'll come back stronger in another location and focus entirely on the private side of things and make a killing. SpaceX already has their first commercial manned charter going up along with another being planned for Tom Cruise to visit the ISS for a Mission: Impossible movie or something. Right now, they're the only US company capable of manned spaceflight until Boeing un-****s itself and gets the Starliner flightworthy at almost double the cost of what SpaceX did it for faster than they did.

Of course, Jim Bridenstine, former Director for NASA, loved SpaceX, so, by proxy it's a Trump thing, meaning the Biden Admin will probably kill contracts to them even though they're the only ones producing services cheaper and quicker than the traditional Big Boys. They are about that stupid.
 
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Remember Elon was a Trump supporter!🤔

Musk is actually pretty apolitical when it comes to individual politicians, but when he speaks about politics in general, he has a pretty conservative view and thinks the government should be getting out of the way and letting the private sector do their thing.
 
Yes and no. It's kind of subjective. Yes, they are the largest single customer, but not the majority of their income. I think about 40% of their revenue comes from the .gov side of things, but they are pretty much the cheapest (and most reliable) company in the game outside of China. China is marginally cheaper, but not as reliable. So, SpaceX gets the lion's share of commercial launch contracts from the private sector.

Anyway, they still hold the commercial resupply contracts for the ISS and the Commercial Crew still has flights to go, but they are doing it cheaper and quicker than the competition. The next round of those contracts are coming up somewhat soon and obviously, someone saving the government a few bucks, well, we just can't have that.

If the .gov was stupid enough to cut off contracts to him and go back exclusively to ULA, Boeing, Northrop, etc, he'd have a shortfall, but I can flat guarantee you he'll come back stronger in another location and focus entirely on the private side of things and make a killing. SpaceX already has their first commercial manned charter going up along with another being planned for Tom Cruise to visit the ISS for a Mission: Impossible movie or something. Right now, they're the only US company capable of manned spaceflight until Boeing un-****s itself and gets the Starliner flightworthy at almost double the cost of what SpaceX did it for faster than they did.

Of course, Jim Bridenstine, former Director for NASA, loved SpaceX, so, by proxy it's a Trump thing, meaning the Biden Admin will probably kill contracts to them even though they're the only ones producing services cheaper and quicker than the traditional Big Boys. They are about that stupid.

I would bet the house Space X doesn't get the anything when the new round of contracts are let.
 
Musk is actually pretty apolitical when it comes to individual politicians, but when he speaks about politics in general, he has a pretty conservative view and thinks the government should be getting out of the way and letting the private sector do their thing.
Yes but if you read between the lines during some of the last 4 years and especially leading up to the election he was wanting Trump to get 4 more years. Now, that may have been for his own interests with Artemis ect.. continuing as planned.
 
I would bet the house Space X doesn't get the anything when the new round of contracts are let.

I wouldn't doubt it in the least. But again, he'll make up the shortfall from the commercial side of things. And there's plenty of governments out there that are launching payloads which will continue to use SpaceX. If the government was stupid enough to pull his launch permits, I can flat guarantee you he'd find a new home for the company outside of the US.
 
Yes but if you read between the lines during some of the last 4 years and especially leading up to the election he was wanting Trump to get 4 more years. Now, that may have been for his own interests with Artemis ect.. continuing as planned.

Oh, sure, you can tell he was happy with the Trump admin as well as their relaxing of the regulatory bodies concerning his launches. But actively supporting Trump (or any politician for that matter) was off limits to him for the most part.

Remember, he moved out of California because they were being stupid.
 
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I think we are on the cusp of new ways of funding space exploration becoming readily available. Venture capital has been flowing into the sector, and Starlink is meant to generate revenue for Musk’s ambitions.

I keep waiting for Apple to step in considering all the money they have in Tim Cook’s mattress; I think they made enough profit just in the last quarter to fund NASA for a year.
 

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