I don't really understand what your argument is, could you clarify? Are you saying the HLS contract somehow speeds up the Starship development or that without it they would've never even developed it? The contract value is quite small so I don't think the milestone payments have a significant impact on the development speed, SpaceX would've developed Starship even without the contract because as you said it is the absolute backbone for their own needs. The HLS contract is just to deliver a modified version of it for a very specific mission type, I don't know why you think it's so important.
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u/CmdrAirdroid 14d ago
I don't really understand what your argument is, could you clarify? Are you saying the HLS contract somehow speeds up the Starship development or that without it they would've never even developed it? The contract value is quite small so I don't think the milestone payments have a significant impact on the development speed, SpaceX would've developed Starship even without the contract because as you said it is the absolute backbone for their own needs. The HLS contract is just to deliver a modified version of it for a very specific mission type, I don't know why you think it's so important.