A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in 2012. Photo: Air Force Space Command
Posted on 06/13/2015 8:55:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in 2012. Photo: Air Force Space Command
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Eutelsat's Chief Executive Michel de Rosen said a duopoly between Arianespace and SpaceX would leave the industry exposed if one of the two rocket suppliers suffered a failure that grounded its vehicle for several months. Credit: Arianespace, SpaceX [SES, Eutelsat CEOs Vow To Do What it Takes to Avoid SpaceX, Arianespace Duopoly]
De Rosen took issue with statements repeatedly made by French politicians and others that attribute SpaceX's success to U.S. taxpayer largesse. "This is exaggerated," de Rosen said. "First of all, SpaceX's support from NASA is in the form of contracts, not subsidies. And even these total less than what the European taxpayer is paying to develop the Ariane 6 rocket. There is a tendency in Europe to look at a non-European's success and conclude, 'He's cheating.' Yes, [SpaceX Chief Executive] Elon Musk has been aided, but he has done a lot." [SES, Eutelsat CEOs Vow To Do What it Takes to Avoid SpaceX, Arianespace Duopoly]
De Rosen took issue with statements repeatedly made by French politicians and others that attribute SpaceX’s success to U.S. taxpayer largesse. “This is exaggerated,” de Rosen said. “First of all, SpaceX’s support from NASA is in the form of contracts, not subsidies. And even these total less than what the European taxpayer is paying to develop the Ariane 6 rocket. There is a tendency in Europe to look at a non-European’s success and conclude, ‘He’s cheating.’ Yes, [SpaceX Chief Executive] Elon Musk has been aided, but he has done a lot.”
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According to some on FR, Musk is nothing but a welfare queen.
They’re wrong, of course.
Elon Musk is an engineer with a used car salesman’s penchant for business.
We pay the Russians to take our astronauts to and from the ISS, and for the supply rockets.
What’s McCain up to? Is he running for President again?
We subsidize the Russian space program, and should not. That’s a holdover from the Demagogic Party’s pathological need to bind us to a single party state dictatorship that they worship.
We should have our own manned space program.
One guy alone guy who almost had no startup money originally, and who as a boy had very few friends I think is going to totally change the way we live our lives.
We probably won’t see really deep effects even in five years but after 30 years Elon`s impact is going to be HUGE.
The thing I like most about him is that he is always polite and never a braggart.
ULA has the Delta Heavy. SpaceX will have the Falcon Heavy- essentially 3 Falcon 9’s strapped together.
The demo launch is supposedly sometime this year. I had heard it may be pushed back, but I don’t know.
I can’t wait for the Falcon X launcher to fly that’ll use the Raptor engines they are developing at the moment. I think it is supposed to be classified as a super-heavy class launch vehicle. Falcon XX is supposed to be ultra-heavy lift vehicle.
We do, we just don’t actually have any launch capability in the area of man-rated boosters. It’s a stupid situation. President Reagan wanted Space Station Freedom, Carl Sagan and the rest of the left wanted the International Space Station.
The Pentagon shouldn’t be relying on our Russian enemy to launch the replacement for GPS, either.
So, you think the once premier spacefaring nation should be able to lift their own astronauts into space? Wow, what a great idea!
I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to become so dependent on the Russians for our space program but it should stop. It’s the national security stupid.
Access to space is a vital strategic capability that should not be dependent upon parts or resources that can be cut off by an enemy.
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