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The bail out in this bill for blue origin is unbelievable. It’s like somebody looked at the SLS and decided hey! We need more programs like that. It distorts

The bail out in this bill for blue origin is unbelievable. It’s like somebody looked at the SLS and decided hey! We need more programs like that. It distorts the market badly, and it Removes any Incentive for commercial entities to offer reasonable prices.

trhway 5y ago
isn't Bezos going beyond Karman line next month on his rocket (looks like a pretty ballsy move btw)? While BO achievements pale in comparison to Musk, may be the government decided to diversify a bit, and BO probably a better choice than SLS or United Launch - so a kind of progress in government spending, a sign of some minimal intelligence at least.
- takeda 5y ago
  "everything needs to work flawlessly, because our CEO is watching"
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    Not for long if it does go wrong...
    - riffic 5y ago
      it has a decent track record and isn't an orbital flight.
      - a133z 5y ago
        Doesn't count if its not an orbital class flight. Seeing the Virgin Galactic suborbiter drop from the two headed monster airplane looks so wrong in so many dimensions, including the immaturity of flight avionics when compared to what SpaceX has already done and improves in so short a time. Your eyes role when you hear of 18 years of investment in another vehicle and they haven't tested one vehicle at all! And, they want 6 more years of funding without marking exactly when the first test vehicle will fly!
minsc__and__boo 5y ago
Seems the $10B is earmarked for two lunar landings though, right? The purpose of the bill is to beef up domestic technology and decrease dependence on Chinese and foreign supply chains.
nickik 5y ago
I don't really like it either but calling it a 'bail out' is just nonsense. Its not like BO is going bankrupt. NASA had initially requested the money for two landers anyway.
- InTheArena 5y ago
  All it takes is Bezos being unwilling to cash 2 billion dollars of stock a year for BO to go under.
  - nickik 5y ago
    Yes, but he has been willing so far and being accept or not accepted for HLS does not impact his willingness to continue to do that. However he will not spend billion to pay LM and NG for them to never actually deliver anything. BO will just continue to plot forward in its glacial style instead.
nscalf 5y ago
Can you explain why? If the government values this type of ongoing research by a variety of organizations, doesn't it make sense to fund that? Isn't that how research has always been done? I get that the guy who owns it is rich, but the government has always funded projects that yield R&D returns in a variety of ways. Doing this allows them to affect Blue Origins direction instead of stay at the whim of a billionaire. We should be applauding the government taking moon shots (literally), not hating it. Would you rather the government spin up another NASA type org for research? They already give funding to huge amounts of companies and labs in the form of grants, loans, and contracts. I get short term it can affect prices, but long term it accelerates technology. And these types of investments, even though they don't always yield the intended results, have had a massive impact on GDP. The thing we really know is that investments like this pay off, so I really don't get the hate on this other than the fact that the owner is rich.

trhway 5y ago

isn't Bezos going beyond Karman line next month on his rocket (looks like a pretty ballsy move btw)? While BO achievements pale in comparison to Musk, may be the government decided to diversify a bit, and BO probably a better choice than SLS or United Launch - so a kind of progress in government spending, a sign of some minimal intelligence at least.

takeda 5y ago
"everything needs to work flawlessly, because our CEO is watching"
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Not for long if it does go wrong...
  - riffic 5y ago
    it has a decent track record and isn't an orbital flight.
    - a133z 5y ago
      Doesn't count if its not an orbital class flight. Seeing the Virgin Galactic suborbiter drop from the two headed monster airplane looks so wrong in so many dimensions, including the immaturity of flight avionics when compared to what SpaceX has already done and improves in so short a time. Your eyes role when you hear of 18 years of investment in another vehicle and they haven't tested one vehicle at all! And, they want 6 more years of funding without marking exactly when the first test vehicle will fly!

minsc__and__boo 5y ago

Seems the $10B is earmarked for two lunar landings though, right? The purpose of the bill is to beef up domestic technology and decrease dependence on Chinese and foreign supply chains.

nickik 5y ago

I don't really like it either but calling it a 'bail out' is just nonsense. Its not like BO is going bankrupt. NASA had initially requested the money for two landers anyway.

InTheArena 5y ago
All it takes is Bezos being unwilling to cash 2 billion dollars of stock a year for BO to go under.
- nickik 5y ago
  Yes, but he has been willing so far and being accept or not accepted for HLS does not impact his willingness to continue to do that. However he will not spend billion to pay LM and NG for them to never actually deliver anything. BO will just continue to plot forward in its glacial style instead.

nscalf 5y ago

Can you explain why? If the government values this type of ongoing research by a variety of organizations, doesn't it make sense to fund that? Isn't that how research has always been done? I get that the guy who owns it is rich, but the government has always funded projects that yield R&D returns in a variety of ways. Doing this allows them to affect Blue Origins direction instead of stay at the whim of a billionaire. We should be applauding the government taking moon shots (literally), not hating it. Would you rather the government spin up another NASA type org for research? They already give funding to huge amounts of companies and labs in the form of grants, loans, and contracts. I get short term it can affect prices, but long term it accelerates technology. And these types of investments, even though they don't always yield the intended results, have had a massive impact on GDP. The thing we really know is that investments like this pay off, so I really don't get the hate on this other than the fact that the owner is rich.