31 thoughts on “SpaceX’s Success”

  2. I spent a few minutes looking Drew Johnson’s company’s tax return. It’s a nonprofit with six employees where the president draws a salary of $360k, program manager $212k and vice president $135k. It got about $5 million from donors and somehow disposed of almost all of it. Net assets were $1.2 million.
    https://nationalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NCPPR-2019.pdf

    In 2015, donations were over $11 million and net assets were $750k.
    https://nationalcenter.org/NCPPR_2014_990_Tax_Return.pdf

    I conclude that Drew Johnson is an expert at wasting other peoples’ money.
    https://nationalcenter.org/ncppr/staff/drew-johnson/

    1. Too bad rich people can’t put their money where it can make an impact rather than light it on fire by giving it to grifters.

    2. Why does a non-profit need to spend $700k on the top three officers? Aren’t the officers serious about their work, or are they just there for the cash?

      A friend (and former manager) took a job at a non-profit AND TOOK A PAY CUT. Because she is serious about the organization’s mission — and didn’t intend to work there the rest of her life, just help the org and get some executive experience at the same time.

      1. Interesting question, Rob. I see that the organization has been used before to redirect/launder fraud money.

        Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was a member of NCPPR’s Board of Directors; he resigned in October 2004 after NCPPR’s Board of Directors concluded he had violated the organization’s conflict of interest policy. In October 2002, Abramoff directed the Mississippi Band of Choctaws to give $1 million to NCPPR, and then told Amy Ridenour to distribute the funds to Capital Athletic Foundation ($450,000), Capitol Campaign Strategies ($500,000) and Nurnberger and Associates ($50,000). In June 2003, Greenberg Traurig, the firm that employed Abramoff, sent $1.5 million to NCPPR, of which Ridenour distributed $250,000 to Capital Athletic Foundation and the remainder to Kay Gold LLC, both controlled by Abramoff. Ridenour said in testimony that she believed Abramoff co-conspirator Michael Scanlon was the owner of Kay Gold (Kaygold).

        That’s almost 20 years ago. Funny how they’re still around.

  3. We should congratulate Drew Johnson. He’s making a great living running a bs company producing nothing but bs and people are stupid enough to donate money.
    Stand aside P.T. Barnum! (who did at least produce entertainment).
    Does PJ Media now have to hire trolls to get hits?

    1. Well, they haven’t gotten rid of Your Daily Treacheround yet, despite years of hordes of commenters hating him.

  4. I’d wager he knows exactly what is what, but someone — Blue Origin, ULA, a SLS high-level manager — wrote him a big fat check to write this hit piece. Whoring is the world’s oldest profession, after all…

  6. The stupid in this “watchdog” boggles the mind. Having followed SpaceX since nearly day one, the interative testing approach is clearly part of the company’s DNA. They had a huge success building up the Falcon 1 to the current product, and yes FedGov is the main buyer, but so what. The price point and reliability KILLS all other competitors.

    Since watch dogs are mindless creatures that bark at all things it considers a threat, whether it be squirrrel or burglar, it is hardly surprising that Drew doesn’t have the mental horsepower to research the very open history of SpaceX’s development process. He’s not only a dumb mutt, but lazy as well. I won’t speak to whether he has been bought and paid for by SpaceX’s desperate competitors.

    1. yes FedGov is the main buyer, but so what. The price point and reliability KILLS all other competitors.

      That really is the unarguable counterpoint to the argument that what SpaceX does is paid for by the government. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and their spawns USA and ULA get paid too. But do they deliver at SpaceX’s price point? Then again, when so many face extinction from a single source, then expect them to fight back with silly op-eds like this trying to defend themselves.

    2. “….and yes FedGov is the main buyer, but so what.”

      In truth, only 8 of SpaceX’s 26 launches in 2020 were for federal government agencies.

      (Now, it is true that a majority of the remaining launches were for Starlink, SpaceX’s internal client. But even so, it has been the case for a few years now that the majority of Falcon family launches have been for non U.S. government clients. This fact is not often appreciated, but it is important to understand in appreciating the reach of SpaceX’s market dominance now, and not just for rubbishing the accusation that SpaceX’s is just another bloated federal-only aerospace contractor.)

  7. “Given that an updated version of Starship is now strewn across the Gulf of Mexico in millions of pieces, SpaceX doesn’t appear to have gotten a whole lot better in the testing and fixing department. ”

    Obviously, a starship hasn’t been built, yet.
    And one most significant aspect of starship, will be it’s heat shield.
    Once one get a starship prototype go to orbit and then re-enter, then you going something looking like a starship.
    Though I suppose the lunar starship does not need a heat shield- but would seem to require all it’s engines,

      4. All of them except the Saturn V engines Bezos recovered from their resting place on the ocean floor, anyway.

    2. Wow — he didn’t even bother to watch the video or read an honest report of what happened? SN-8 was scattered across its landing pad target, not the Gulf. Criticizing a company and showing that much ignorance of the event you’re criticizing is a really, really bad look.

  8. A lot of it is just opinion but the intentional twisting of the teeny tiny amount of money SpaceX will get from NASA and the deliberate and deceitful way the author took a year old quote from Bridenstein and tied it to recent events shows the underhanded nature of the author and the op-ed.

    How much was PJM paid to run this? If they did it for free, it explains why they had to stop paying Instapundit a while back. If They are going to be part if a grift, better make sure they are in on the gift.

  9. Pingback: SpaceX’s Success – Tom DeGisi

  10. If you’re worried about taxpayer money being wasted on space progress, go dig into SLS/Orion.

    Seriously – no kidding.

  11. I guess it should be comforting to know that knowledge isn’t necessarily a requirement for getting published.

  12. I’m impressed. He’s making big money by not knowing, amongst many other things, that the Gulf of Mexico is not on land.

    Whoever wrote the check for this hit piece got ripped off; it’s so bad that it’s not even useful for its desired intent.

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