this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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SpaceX is the main contractor of NASA.
Because Republicans gutted NASA for decades. They absolutely loathed that it was a generally beloved program by everyone. And for every dollar of funding saw multiple times that in the value it created. What SpaceX did wasn't something that NASA had never thought of. They just never had the funding to really pursue it. And especially in the wasteful manner Elon musk has.
What did spaceX do, exactly?
We've had re-usable spacecraft rated for human passengers since the Space Shuttle.
Reentry vehicle sure. Launch vehicle, no. The ocean floor is littered with booster stage debris. NASA had experimented with a lot of different methods to reach orbit. And had even looked at things that SpaceX eventually built. But never had the funding to build themselves.
SpaceX is nothing but the culmination of a Reagan era fascist fever, dream. Ofdismantling good governance. Privatizing everything possible and then price gouging.
I just saw SpaceX's most recent rocket launch and it looked like they detached the boosters.
I think they exploded afterwards, too.
Absolutely. But that's only because Elon musk doesn't mind throwing away money. He's got so much of it. The rockets were supposed to stabilize themselves and land to be reused. He's blown up more rockets than NASA so far. In much less time.
Oh yeah, I was just curious what spaceX did cause it doesn't look like they accomplished anything we haven't done before.
Maybe if they successfully implement re-usable boosters, then they would have done something new.