Posted on 08/26/2012 10:17:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Despite the news and pictures from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, America's once great space program is on life support because we no longer have a serious manned space exploration program....And the Obama Administration's unimaginative and amateurish vision for space exploration -- even if successful -- will not revive the dying program. It merely follows the disturbing pattern of the Solyndra scandal, funneling tax dollars to Obama donors and fundraisers.
[SNIP]
....SpaceX collects tax dollars so that it can learn how to build and develop something that other companies were doing a generation ago. It is curious that SpaceX is now receiving so much taxpayer cash given its stunningly thin record of success in space....even more troubling given that SpaceX's founder and CEO is a big-time Obama donor....
However, the problem with how the Obama Administration is pursuing its uninspiring and unimaginative space program goals goes well beyond picking donors to receive favorable contracts and guaranteed government cash with little accountability. Even if SpaceX accomplishes everything asked of it, it will not get us beyond low-Earth orbit. Simply stated, the Obama administration’s vision for space exploration is essentially to replace the hauling capability of the shuttle -- something that was developed more than 30 years ago. Beyond that, real space exploration is not a serious priority.
....NASA is transitioning from being a highly respected nonpartisan space exploration agency to just another arm of Obama’s political operation -- wasting tax dollars on friends, diminishing America's global leadership in space exploration, and ensuring that if we continue down this path, we will fall behind China, Russia, India, and others. This will have dire implications for our economy and national security. The Administration has been asked to correct course, but so far has refused to act.....
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I oppose all forms of subsidies and stuff.
Your Wikipedia source has the manifest into 2017 - very nice advertising and self promotion but hardly a factual record of achievement. The proof will be in the pudding.
A lot of liberals make terrific business leaders, especially for young and growing companies. As long as they stay out of government and earn their money, I'm happy.
Great post, BTW.
I’ve heard some rumors that SpaceX is planning to go public. I haven’t heard a timeframe yet, but when it happens I’ll certainly invest in the company.
You should see the failures of the SSMEs. When a turbopump goes out of control, it could hit 400,000RPMS within a second. Computers weren’t yet fast enough so they went through quite a lot of iterations for turbopumps.
I wish I could find the report I read that identified the problems and fixed them.
Oh yeah, the reason they needed cryogenic fuels for the SSMEs was the power output. You get more power out of H+LOX VS Kerosene and LOX although they provided enough power for the first stage Apollo rockets..
They had three failed launches before making it to orbit successfully. Since then they’ve had no failures. Their cashflow is good plus they are getting contracts to launch satellites from the private sector. Their goal is to get the cost of getting to orbit from $10,000 per pound to $1,000 or possibly even $500 per pound. If they are able to re-use the first and second stages plus the space capsule of manned rockets this is achievable.
Launching satellites into LEO is a major achievement and not an easy thing to do. Just try launching model rockets and getting them back undamaged.
Elon Musk has stated that he wants to get to Mars by around 2020 and not stay just in LEO like the author feels will happen.
SpaceX is also trying to qualify to launch DoD payloads. They pay more per launch but the rate SpaceX will charge the military will also save the taxpayer money compared to what the other companies charge.
Many naybobs keep saying all kinds of negative crap about SpaceX but Elon keeps proving them wrong.
When SpaceX lands on Mars can you think of anything negative you’d like to say at that time?
You’ve really got it bad, don’t you?
By your own naysaying it sounds to me that’s your problem, not mine!
Elon Musk and his extended family are getting subsides and contracts for their electric car company Tesla, for their solar panel company Solar City and so far, around $800 billion for SpaceX.
Meanwhile, thousands of skilled U.S. space workers are beating the bushes (with many other Americans) looking for any job to pay their bills.
While Elon Musk gives pie in the sky interviews about how he plans to settle Mars in 10-20 years, China is set to land on the Moon next year.
I posted the article and politely asked questions of FReepers who posted.
You felt it necessary to flood the thread with pro-Space X cheerleading. I do not fault you - only pointed out your obvious annoyance at having an Obama supporter (who gets hundreds of millions in government funding for 3 businesses) pointed out and held up for inspection.
How is SpaceX different from airlines that run private cargo AND government-contracted cargo such as mail?
What if SpaceX pays back the R&D costs over time? Would that make you a happy camper?
I would rather see Elon stick with SpaceX and get out of Tesla since electric cars aren’t going anywhere until the powerplant situation is resolved.
Either...
I think you have the wrong letter in front of the "illion"...
Or
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
:-)
Another big difference between Space-X and Solyndra...
Space-X is actually making something that works, is working on a technological frontier (private orbital operations), and this market is not in danger of becoming commoditized any time soon.
Solyndra was working in a mature market (conventional photoelectric solar cells) that has been commoditized. They were not working on the frontier of this technology.
Solyndra was a scam and a money play.
Sort of like wind farms. The promoters and wind turbine manufacturers make all their money up front, but the bondholders and rate payers are going to be screwed in the long run.
Space-X is in fact on a technology leading-edge. Yes they are getting money from Nasa for development contracts. BUT they are hitting the deliverables (in a reasonable way given the challenges).
Between giving money to GM and Solyndra - versus Space-X - there is IMHO no comparison...
Funded by Musk and venture capital firms, but primary customer has been NASA: IOW, government contracts.
Which they produced the required hardware for even exceeded the requirements in a competitive program (Orbital Sciences has basically been floundering in this program).
SpaceX has a number of commercial contracts now but remains to be seen how significant those will be in the near term.
Prob'ly true, but I'm sure building nooks is a blast...to er, um, make a pun...
If this wasn’t sarcasm, then I challenge you to design a vehicle that accelerates from 0 to 18000mph, over 200 miles, which also has to get to the exact correct angle relative to the earths surface to achieve orbit, and neither crash and burn back to earth nor fly off to infinity. Then approach a teeny tiny dot at an exact altitude and location and velocity, and link up with it. Then leave that dot, and enter the atmosphere at an exact time, at an exact angle, so you neither bounce off it, and fly into infinity, not burn to a cinder. And then after not burning up, land at an exact spot, while the planet is moving and rotating. Finally slowing from 18000mph to 0
lets see, i believe that Spacex has received at the time of the COTS demo Elon Musk and NASA had put in $1B 1/2 from NASA. and you object WHY
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