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Led by Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4, who last year was part of Inspiration4 mission. I'm super confused how this programme works. Does Jared want to fund all

Led by Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4, who last year was part of Inspiration4 mission. I'm super confused how this programme works. Does Jared want to fund all these missions? If not, what is the "team's" contribution here?

mlindner 5y ago
Think of it a joint partnership between SpaceX and Jared. Jared gets to fly in space again in a "better, higher, faster" mission and SpaceX gets a discount on in-space experimentation of their capsule and technologies they're working on. It's a win-win partnership.
thereddaikon 5y ago
What I think is happening, SpaceX is already developing starship. Regardless of that NASA or anyone else wants they will try to make it happen for their own purposes. As part of that program there will have to be a lot of test flights. SpaceX will need to prove they can do things that NASA did decades ago like space walks. Issacman has a lot of money and wants to be an astronaut. He is willing and able to pay SpaceX for flights. Since he has already been trained and flown in space he is also a conveniently available and willing commercial astronaut that they dont have to pay. On top of that he brings the partnership with Saint Jude which is always good PR. Especially when people are being So Issacman gets his dream of being an astronaut, SpaceX gets some good PR out of something they were going to do anyways. And Saint Jude gets some donations.
- gameswithgo 5y ago
  That about sums it up, plus you can try to get sponsors, like a monster truck event. Do a spectacle, get people to pay to put their logo on it. Many will say it is all silly, and it is, but leveraging the madness of humans to do good (and bad) things is what moves history.
  - thereddaikon 5y ago
    I don't know why people are all that surprised really. This is what commercial space is going to look like. SpaceX isn't NASA. They aren't gifted a budget by congress to carry out their mission. They have to pay for it justify the cost with a profit somewhere a long the line. Getting sponsorships, partnerships and paying customers is all a part of that. The age of rockets just having a flag painted on them are over. For every mission that isn't bought by the government, expect the space suits to look more like racing suits.
    - ac29 5y ago
      > SpaceX isn't NASA. They aren't gifted a budget by congress to carry out their mission. Scrolling through last year's list of launches, NASA is SpaceX's largest paying customer by far.

mlindner 5y ago

Think of it a joint partnership between SpaceX and Jared. Jared gets to fly in space again in a "better, higher, faster" mission and SpaceX gets a discount on in-space experimentation of their capsule and technologies they're working on. It's a win-win partnership.

thereddaikon 5y ago

What I think is happening, SpaceX is already developing starship. Regardless of that NASA or anyone else wants they will try to make it happen for their own purposes. As part of that program there will have to be a lot of test flights. SpaceX will need to prove they can do things that NASA did decades ago like space walks. Issacman has a lot of money and wants to be an astronaut. He is willing and able to pay SpaceX for flights. Since he has already been trained and flown in space he is also a conveniently available and willing commercial astronaut that they dont have to pay. On top of that he brings the partnership with Saint Jude which is always good PR. Especially when people are being So Issacman gets his dream of being an astronaut, SpaceX gets some good PR out of something they were going to do anyways. And Saint Jude gets some donations.

gameswithgo 5y ago
That about sums it up, plus you can try to get sponsors, like a monster truck event. Do a spectacle, get people to pay to put their logo on it. Many will say it is all silly, and it is, but leveraging the madness of humans to do good (and bad) things is what moves history.
- thereddaikon 5y ago
  I don't know why people are all that surprised really. This is what commercial space is going to look like. SpaceX isn't NASA. They aren't gifted a budget by congress to carry out their mission. They have to pay for it justify the cost with a profit somewhere a long the line. Getting sponsorships, partnerships and paying customers is all a part of that. The age of rockets just having a flag painted on them are over. For every mission that isn't bought by the government, expect the space suits to look more like racing suits.
  - ac29 5y ago
    > SpaceX isn't NASA. They aren't gifted a budget by congress to carry out their mission. Scrolling through last year's list of launches, NASA is SpaceX's largest paying customer by far.