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A marketer's trick. But he has at least one big win - SpaceX.
by ddalex 5y ago
A marketer's trick. But he has at least one big win - SpaceX.
- agumonkey 5y agoTesla is also one (a lot less so than SpaceX). They kinda reached their claims and stayed alive longer than expected.
- ahahahahah 5y agoIs SpaceX a win? So far they seem to only be able to spend many billions of dollars. Are they just doing something that is so expensive that it loses tons of money and that companies that need to make money are unwilling to do?
- mft_ 5y agoIrrespective of one's feelings about Elon himself, SpaceX is pretty special, and few people who know about this sector would disagree. They've revolutionised launching things (now including humans) into space through building cheaper rockets and then pioneering landable and reusable rockets. They've done this for a relatively low cost and pretty quickly, vs. their competitors who spend more money and time doing less impressive things. They've probably reduced the cost to orbit per kg by ~10x. Regarding spending (and as with Tesla) don't confuse the cost of ongoing R&D with general running costs. Their launch business with Falcon 9/Heavy is profitable; but the R&D to get to where they are (with those reusable landing rockets, engine improvements, Dragon, Crew Dragon, drone ships, etc.) cost a lot. And they're now spending even more to develop Starship and a new generation of engines (Raptor) which will probably drop the cost to orbit by at least another order of magnitude.