this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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I mean this is the big thing that baffles me: Elon has ended up privately owning some of the most important public investments in the US. All of the tech originated in academia and it's mostly paid for by the tax payer. Americans are fucking wild for letting that happen and clapping about it.
There are other companies like ULA, Firefly, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, and etc but they are all behind what SpaceX is doing capabilities wise, who is doing it cheaper with good reliability. SpaceX did 98 successful launches in 2023. We are currently in a state of transition in the rocket industry caused by SpaceX and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Western Countries lost the use of Soyuz and Russian rocket engines which Atlas 5 and Antares uses). Up until yesterday with ULA’s successful launch of Vulcan, they were the only rocket that currently exist and aren’t Russian and Chinese that can launch at medium to heavy lift capability. Currently everybody else and including the European companies aren’t ready either with their medium to heavy lift rockets. That is the issue right now is that SpaceX currently has an effective monopoly so they have too much sway right now but I’m so glad Vulcan was successful so that can finally end. Even Europe had to reluctantly use SpaceX since Ariane 6 and Vega aren’t ready yet.
It goes farther than that.
spacex (and the other "private" space companies) actively poach talent from NASA, JPL, and so forth.
And while spacex is not the only company that were paid by the US government to steal resources and lessen capabilities: It is always worth remembering that musk "invested" because he was pissy that russia wouldn't sell him an ICBM.