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If we're being honest, SpaceX is designed to gobble up government contracts. That's it. That's the whole business model. If NASA offered contracts exploring th

• thinkcontext 6y ago
  That was ULA before SpaceX came around. They had a monopoly on government launch and they won almost no commercial contracts on the global market because they were uncompetitive. SpaceX has totally reversed both of those. They have saved the government $Bs by undercutting ULA and is the top commercial launcher in the world.
• cies 6y ago
  Not only govt contracts. Also private satellite launches, their own satellite internet network, and prolly more. Of there was an untapped market in deep sea, it might have been tapped by him as well. But judging from the oil+gas exploration there I think that's not quite as untapped (pun maybe intended).
  • criley2 6y ago
    Their financials have nothing to do with private launches. They are doing them at a loss funded by government contracts. The satellite internet project is a piggyback on government contracts. Starlink is only viable if SpaceX exists, and SpaceX can only exist as long as the NASA billions are flowing in. They don't have the money to invent the SpaceX to make the Starlink, and Starlink won't be so profitable as to be able to shoulder the cost of inventing private space flight, so they need the government funding to create the private space flight foundation that could make Starlink some day profitable without having to fund that foundation. I'm not against the government creating new markets like this, NASA has been doing it for a long time.