Is it bad for a private company to barge into something that the government-run agency has proven to do slowly, expensively (and always way over budget), while managing it poorly and trying to make do with whatever crumbs of national budget short-sighted politicians toss their way?
Now, if we still had the NASA of the Gemini days, and the days following Apollo 1, we would have a different comparison here. But compared to the current NASA, I would say that SpaceX is a better way forward in space right now.
And while SpaceX seems to get all the attention, they are not devoid of competition.
Who would you say is their competition? A ULA led by Tory Bruno and divorced from its abusive parents could do it. I’m still on the fence about Blue Origin.
Isn’t BO delivering engines now? Things might start moving faster.
The youtube channel, smarter everyday, did a tour of ULA. A clever observer could gauge their progress.
Thanks, I’ll check out the tour
AFAIK the first BE-4’s for Vulcan haven’t been delivered yet but are due sometime this year, so we’re getting close.
Blue Origin is taking its time, but I don’t think we can doubt they’re for real, given how much infrastructure they’ve put in place in just the last year.
How competitive they will be remains to be seen. But given that they’re the only other heavy launcher attempting reusability right now, they’re worth being in the discussion.
China is clearly going to move into this game, too, but it will take them a while longer.
SpaceX doesn’t have any real competition. I’m looking for Virgin Galactic to fold in the not too distant future, ULA are locked into a completely obsolete paradigm and Blue Origin appears to be a not very important hobby to Bezos who seems to have adopted the current NASA philosophy (JB may be shaking that up).
What SpaceX DOES have is drive and will and a clearly articulated goal, which in its fulfillment, will result in enormous amounts of relatively cheap to operate infrastructure and vehicles useful for other purposes.
As my dear wife is fond of saying about many things including staying married (42 years and counting) “ya gotta wanna” if you want it to happen.
Mike,
Agreed on all points. Out of curiosity, do you think New Shepard will ever fly humans? If I was gonna bet, I would say one test flight w/ two company astronauts, but not until next year. After that, they end the program.
For decades, I never fully understood the value of a clearly articulated goal. But that is the real source of success for Musk. It’s not the billionaire stuff, as Bezos and Branson are billionaires yet are not moving at pace with Musk. The government has even more money, and they seem to be devolving. The money does help attract talent, but I’m still amazed at how much talent NASA draws based on decades old success and propaganda, then squanders that talent on quixotic quests.
Yeah … I too think it’s bad that it’s “controlled” by one billionaire. I’d rather it be promoted by dozens of billionaires. That’s a problem with the other billionaires.
Come on Blue Origin, poke that turtle mascot of yours already! The same number of years and nigh-infinite funding – what is the problem?
Since this appears to be a German site. I’m guessing that the author of this post is an unrequited member of the old East German Communist Party. Possibly he was even a Stasi informer.
Web comic creators are too young to play those fun and games. Maybe his parents pined a lot.
But here’s a comic where he equates (using an unusually large amount of verbiage) the philosophies of Adam Smith and Karl Marx under the theory that if two philosophers criticize the same targets (here, lazy English land owners), then they must have the same beliefs.
And turns out, this is not the first time he’s bashed Elon Musk.
In May, Mohler—creator of the popular Existential Comics series (@existentialcoms)—sent out a tweet claiming that Musk “makes all his money from government subsidies and contracts, and by wildly exaggerating production to pump up stock prices” and comparing him to “the villain from Atlas Shrugged.” The tweet went viral, gathering over 9,000 likes and 1,700 retweets to date. Musk, who could have instead been orbiting Earth in a SpaceX rocket while lighting Cuban cigars with million-dollar bills, decided to respond by arguing about which auto companies get the most government subsidies.
“equates … the philosophies of Adam Smith and Karl Marx under the theory that if two philosophers criticize the same targets …, then they must have the same beliefs.”
I think that’s a contender for the stupidest idea I’ve heard in the last couple months. And there’s been a lot of competition for stupid ideas. If 2 philosophers prescribe the same fix for a problem target they might have the same underlying beliefs. But when their remedies are so greatly at odds only a fool would think the philosophers are aligned.
“The villain from Atlas Shrugged.” He does remind me of the villain. That is, the villain according to this idiot, who thinks John Galt and Howard Roark are villains because they build stuff.
Never mind that the alternative to shoveling taxpayer money to the megalomaniac South African-born billionaire is shoveling vastly larger piles of taxpayer money to bloated legacy defense contractors who take even longer to build your spaceships.
Of course, I’m sure Existential Comics thinks that spaceships should be built purely by NASA, employing woke organic artisan craftsmen who live in anarcho-syndicalist communes.
P.S. I’m glad at any rate that plenty of peeps firing back in the Twitter thread have pointed out that the emerald mine thing is an urban myth.
There are things worth criticizing Elon Musk for, but this ain’t one of ’em.
I’m glad this guy’s not in charge of anything.
Being factually wrong tends to self fulfill.
Is it bad for a private company to barge into something that the government-run agency has proven to do slowly, expensively (and always way over budget), while managing it poorly and trying to make do with whatever crumbs of national budget short-sighted politicians toss their way?
Now, if we still had the NASA of the Gemini days, and the days following Apollo 1, we would have a different comparison here. But compared to the current NASA, I would say that SpaceX is a better way forward in space right now.
And while SpaceX seems to get all the attention, they are not devoid of competition.
Who would you say is their competition? A ULA led by Tory Bruno and divorced from its abusive parents could do it. I’m still on the fence about Blue Origin.
Isn’t BO delivering engines now? Things might start moving faster.
The youtube channel, smarter everyday, did a tour of ULA. A clever observer could gauge their progress.
Thanks, I’ll check out the tour
AFAIK the first BE-4’s for Vulcan haven’t been delivered yet but are due sometime this year, so we’re getting close.
Blue Origin is taking its time, but I don’t think we can doubt they’re for real, given how much infrastructure they’ve put in place in just the last year.
How competitive they will be remains to be seen. But given that they’re the only other heavy launcher attempting reusability right now, they’re worth being in the discussion.
China is clearly going to move into this game, too, but it will take them a while longer.
SpaceX doesn’t have any real competition. I’m looking for Virgin Galactic to fold in the not too distant future, ULA are locked into a completely obsolete paradigm and Blue Origin appears to be a not very important hobby to Bezos who seems to have adopted the current NASA philosophy (JB may be shaking that up).
What SpaceX DOES have is drive and will and a clearly articulated goal, which in its fulfillment, will result in enormous amounts of relatively cheap to operate infrastructure and vehicles useful for other purposes.
As my dear wife is fond of saying about many things including staying married (42 years and counting) “ya gotta wanna” if you want it to happen.
Mike,
Agreed on all points. Out of curiosity, do you think New Shepard will ever fly humans? If I was gonna bet, I would say one test flight w/ two company astronauts, but not until next year. After that, they end the program.
For decades, I never fully understood the value of a clearly articulated goal. But that is the real source of success for Musk. It’s not the billionaire stuff, as Bezos and Branson are billionaires yet are not moving at pace with Musk. The government has even more money, and they seem to be devolving. The money does help attract talent, but I’m still amazed at how much talent NASA draws based on decades old success and propaganda, then squanders that talent on quixotic quests.
Yeah … I too think it’s bad that it’s “controlled” by one billionaire. I’d rather it be promoted by dozens of billionaires. That’s a problem with the other billionaires.
Come on Blue Origin, poke that turtle mascot of yours already! The same number of years and nigh-infinite funding – what is the problem?
Since this appears to be a German site. I’m guessing that the author of this post is an unrequited member of the old East German Communist Party. Possibly he was even a Stasi informer.
Web comic creators are too young to play those fun and games. Maybe his parents pined a lot.
But here’s a comic where he equates (using an unusually large amount of verbiage) the philosophies of Adam Smith and Karl Marx under the theory that if two philosophers criticize the same targets (here, lazy English land owners), then they must have the same beliefs.
And turns out, this is not the first time he’s bashed Elon Musk.
“equates … the philosophies of Adam Smith and Karl Marx under the theory that if two philosophers criticize the same targets …, then they must have the same beliefs.”
I think that’s a contender for the stupidest idea I’ve heard in the last couple months. And there’s been a lot of competition for stupid ideas. If 2 philosophers prescribe the same fix for a problem target they might have the same underlying beliefs. But when their remedies are so greatly at odds only a fool would think the philosophers are aligned.
“The villain from Atlas Shrugged.” He does remind me of the villain. That is, the villain according to this idiot, who thinks John Galt and Howard Roark are villains because they build stuff.
Never mind that the alternative to shoveling taxpayer money to the megalomaniac South African-born billionaire is shoveling vastly larger piles of taxpayer money to bloated legacy defense contractors who take even longer to build your spaceships.
Of course, I’m sure Existential Comics thinks that spaceships should be built purely by NASA, employing woke organic artisan craftsmen who live in anarcho-syndicalist communes.
P.S. I’m glad at any rate that plenty of peeps firing back in the Twitter thread have pointed out that the emerald mine thing is an urban myth.
There are things worth criticizing Elon Musk for, but this ain’t one of ’em.