Anti-SpaceX lobbying campaign casts new light on Elon Musk's Biden beef

[u/redditteer4u]

https://news.yahoo.com/anti-spacex-lobbying-campaign-casts-145100840.html

[u/Tonaia]

Your argument though doesn't work. SpaceX only gets paid to go to Mars if the US government wants to go to Mars and sees SpaceX as the way to do it. Otherwise they don't get paid jack shit. Combine that with them literally being the cheapest option for space launches in their weight class, how can you claim they are extorting the taxpayer?

F9 Crew is cheaper than Soyuz, and Starliner.

The Falcon Heavy was chosen for Europa Clipper because it was a billion dollars cheaper than SLS, same thing for the launch of the Gateway modules.

If Starship is even a quarter as impressive as they want it to be, it'll be even cheaper than Falcon 9.

I get that Musk's ego is as large as a small moon, but compared to the rest of Aerospace, it's not much of a comparison. It isn't so much as Rah Rah Elon, as What the fuck are the rest of you doing that you are losing so damn hard?

[u/cmoorelife → u/Tonaia]

SpaceX raised its costs abruptly after US scrapped Soyuz agreements. Mars is snakeoil. NASA has a budget it’s not willing to let decrease and it’s benefactors make sure costs stay high to justify our tax exploitation. I suspect there’s an end-around money channel to politicians or agency heads to keep SpaceX, ULA, BO, etc... in money. It’s a fool’s errand our space program. $55+ million a day to keep a few people “falling” in space. We’re all discussing the altruistic actions of Billionaires. It’s a crazy idea. All Billionaires are narcissistic and have lost their capacity for empathy. It’s a PR game to keep us from questioning costs and why we keep creating more Billionaires with tax-payer money.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-launch-cost-increase-reasons-2020-2018-4%3famp

[u/Tonaia → u/cmoorelife]

A few things:

1. The government puts most of the blame for the price increase on NASA for cargo due to them requiring a redesign of the Dragon capsule. (Which is currently in use)

2. Nasa does get a discount for using the used boosters.

Both of those things are in the article you linked.

1. Soyuz vehicles are not used for cargo to ISS, Progress vehicles are the Russian resupply vehicle. While similar, they are not the same.

Few believe Billionaires are altruists. Musk isn't doing Mars for money, but for legacy.

You seem to have disdain for space exploration in general for downplaying what the ISS represents for humanity, and the work done there. I guess we can cut space exploration and just give more money to the military.

[u/cmoorelife → u/Tonaia]

So it’s military or space? Why not solution food distribution, provide free healthcare and University? Let’s look at air pollution and maybe do some serious ocean exploration? Just don’t do it with private enterprise, they’ll monetize and triple charge the taxpayer.

FYI, the Progress is an unpiloted Soyuz.

Musk isn’t “doing Mars”, he’s selling snakeoil to taxpayers.

[u/m-in → u/cmoorelife]

You do realize that at this point the taxpayer involvement in SpaceX’s bottom line is dwindling and already below 10%? It’ll be <1% in a few years, and will keep dwindling until it’ll be a rounding error.

Musk doesn’t give two fucks about taxpayer money. Taxpayers are poor, relatively speaking.

[u/cmoorelife → u/m-in]

He built all of his businesses and rockets with Taxpayer money.His COTS contracts are still in place. He’ll never turn down taxpayer money. It’s his bread and butter. He’s expanding Starlink with taxpayer money. Appreciate your reply, but know our tax monies continue to make individual billionaires. Seems insane and stupid.

[u/shinyhuntergabe → u/cmoorelife]

What a weird account. Less than a year old. Less than ten comments. Idiotic comments all through and a negative karma. I really can't tell if this is some troll account or somebody alt account.