Posted on 06/21/2018 10:18:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Under the contract, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based rocket company founded by Elon Musk will launch the Air Force Space Command-52 satellite to its intended orbit. The contract includes launch vehicle production and mission, as well as integration, launch operations and spaceflight worthiness activities, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The work, which will be performed at SpaceX’s headquarters, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and in McGregor, Texas, is expected to be completed by September 2020. The mission is planned to be launched from Kennedy Space Center.
Two proposals were received by the DOD in the competitive bidding process.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
You mean “Space Force” Satellite...
Heck of a lot cheaper than a shuttle launch, and with virtually no risk to human life.
It’s one thing to risk some hardware on antiquated chemical propulsion, but quite another to risk seven human lives at a time. Or four or however many the “new” generation of capsules may carry.
We need to get real with the technology or just...stop it. Carrying on like this is criminal.
Shovel more Federal funds at “free market” Musk.
Clever.
Just how much government money is this guy allowed to get his hands on?
Seems to me like he’s just another crony, capitalist liberal hypocrite.
You are dead on right.
Musk will take this money and throw it into a hole in the ground...
More expensive CGI pictures.
“Two proposals were received by the DOD in the competitive bidding process.”
Yeah, I overbid that one. I also lost the bid on converting the Mars rover to Uber.
But break off a nice chunk for himself before he covers it up. All while extolling the virtues of all things electric made by his companies and why the taxpayer should fund more of his research and production.
Face it, his PowerWall, is nothing but battery backups. He uses fancy lithium-ion batteries, as opposed to good old fashioned, deep cycle marine batteries that are a helluva lot cheaper. Either way, it’s just solar power with battery storage, nothing more.
But in this case SpaceX is contracted to deliver a satellite. Could NASA deliver it to orbit cheaper?
For a site that supports free market solutions there are a lot of people who are critical of SpaceX
The other competitor for the bid was United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. They would have charged 2x3 times as much as SpaceX for the equivalent heavy rocket.
NASA doesn’t build their own rockets. They never have. The construction has always been sub-contracted to private companies. This is no different with SpaceX. As long as they can deliver the goods cheaper than other companies that should be celebrated.
Now Tesla on the other hand, that is a siphon of government money.
Get off this website, it’s not CGI, it’s not fake, STOP DISCREDITING FREE REPUBLIC YOU CONSPIRACY THEORIST NUTJOB!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5K7HKFkZ8o
SUCK ON IT!
Hey genius, you do realize that if Musk wasn’t competing in this market, this satellite would be launching on a disposable Delta IV Heavy at a cost more than TWICE what the Falcon Heavy can do it for, right?! SpaceX is REDUCING THE COST TO TAXPAYERS, GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD!
NO, HE WON’T, HE’LL TAKE IT AND LAUNCH THE SATELLITE WITH THE VERY REAL AND REUSABLE FALCON HEAVY ROCKET FOR LESS THAN HALF THE COST OF THE EXPENDABLE DELTA IV HEAVY ROCKET!
“Force satellite with Falcon Heavy, qaz123 wrote:
Just how much government money is this guy allowed to get his hands on?”
Try LESS THAN HALF THE MONEY THE NEXT MOST POWERFUL ROCKET WOULD COST! YOU PEOPLE ARE HYPOCRITES!
Google Chicago Elon Musk hole in the ground
Just for grins ...
Possible Falcon Heavy payloads:
LEO: 140,700lb
GTO: 58,900lb
Mars: 37,000lb
Pluto: 7,700lb
Possible Delta IV Heavy payloads:
LEO: 63,470lb
GTO: 31,350lb
Falcon Heavy will put almost as much in GTO as Delta IV Heavy will put in LEO. They’re barely in the same category.
Google SpaceX you genius, you just referenced a different company. The $130 million goes to SPACEX for LAUNCHING A SATELLITE not to the BORING COMPANY TO DRILL A HOLE IN THE GROUND. And that $130 million price tag is less than half the cost of launching an expendable Delta IV Heavy. You’re welcome.
Both companies are Elon Musk.
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