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NASA is supporting the privatized space industry, though. Remember that Dragon were/is developed because NASA gave SpaceX a contract for ISS support. Falcon 9 d
by lutorm 9y ago
NASA is supporting the privatized space industry, though. Remember that Dragon were/is developed because NASA gave SpaceX a contract for ISS support. Falcon 9 development also got NASA support.
- valuearb 9y ago"support" is not the same as a contract. ULA got a $1B a year just for "readiness", SpaceX gets contracts to do actually useful things, at a far lower cost than other contractors or NASA itself.
- alehul 9y agoThat's a good point, and you're right that NASA's budget will trickle down as support to privatized space companies. As progress in the industry moves forward, though, I expect we may find other forms of government support, such as what we see in many countries' policies towards renewable energy.
- greglindahl 9y agoThere is no "trickle down" for what NASA is doing with SpaceX and OrbitalATK: It's an outright contract to deliver stuff to the ISS.
- alehul 9y agoI meant that the government funding trickles down to SpaceX and OrbitalATK through NASA's contract.
- greglindahl 9y agoThat's not what those words usually mean when applied to money, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics