• Kualdir@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 day ago

    Ok look I’m all against the BS they’re pulling but lets not forget the fact SpaceX has made anything space related significantly cheaper than NASA ever could in the same timeframe. The money lost on these experiments is peanuts compared to what they’ve saved already AND are needed to progress towards our space-age. I really hope with France putting more money towards competing with SpaceX we’ll have an EU alternative that can actually compete on price.

      • fahfahfahfah@lemmy.billiam.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 day ago

        To be fair, the person you’re responding to is probably talking about the falcon 9 which was developed in California. Brownsville on the other hand is being ruined by a space program that makes no fucking sense and will likely fail in the end.

        • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 day ago

          As much as it’s fun to hate on Musk. The Spaceship program is already cheaper than any other option, even if the second stage never becomes reusable.

          If all they do is gut the starship so it’s a little lighter and more reliable, and keep the reusable booster, it’s going to cut the cost of putting large and heavy payloads into orbit.

          The James Webb telescope would have been significantly cheaper and easier to build and launch if Starship was available. There was an enormous amount of science that was cut at NASA due to the cost and time overruns from the overly complex build.

          It still may never be a real option for lunar missions without the reusability and refueling, but just the ability to send huge things to earth orbit is a giant success.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 day ago

      cheaper than nasa could

      no. they just got more funding and violated a bunch of environmental rules that NASA had to follow, because funding to efficient government programs is threadbare, and funding to military or subsidies of those deemed the beneficiaries of our society.

    • EldritchFeminity
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 day ago

      SpaceX wouldn’t exist without NASA. Not just because all of their tech is upon the foundational tech created by NASA, but because their employee knowledge base is formed from talent poached from NASA, directly stealing experience from the public space sector to hoard for their own profit.

      • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        love your username.

        but yes, there is no wealth on this magnitude without pillaging the world others have built, tearing out the wiring, and selling it for scrap. they can only destroy. the creative urge is, as they say, also a destructive urge. more true for capitalists than most.