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That whole spacex origin myth is ridiculous. Musk goes to Russia to buy an ICBM? Right. Then, having never touched a rocket, Musk is given $400M to start space

That whole spacex origin myth is ridiculous. Musk goes to Russia to buy an ICBM? Right. Then, having never touched a rocket, Musk is given $400M to start spacex? Ok.

adastra22 4y ago
Musk wasn’t given $400M to start SpaceX. What are you talking about? He self-funded with money from PayPal until the first successful Falcon 1 launch.
- irthomasthomas 4y ago
  Read the links. "In 2002, Griffin was President and COO of In-Q-Tel, a private enterprise funded by the CIA to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve national security interests. During this time, he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia where they attempted to purchase ICBMs. The unsuccessful trip is credited as directly leading to the formation of SpaceX.[11] Griffin was an early advocate for Musk calling him a potential “Henry Ford for the rocket industry".[12] After In-Q-Tel, Griffin served as Chief Engineer and Associate Administrator for Space Exploration at NASA Headquarters. In 2005, he was appointed NASA Administrator where he conceived and introduced Commercial Resupply Services and crew transportation services for the International Space Station.[13] Twenty aerospace companies applied to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, but only SpaceX was selected and given $396 million--a surprising bet given the new company had never flown a rocket.[14] In December 2008, with SpaceX again on the verge of bankruptcy, Griffin awarded SpaceX along with his own Orbital Sciences company each contracts with a combined value of $3.5 billion.[15] Elon Musk credited the NASA contract as saving his company.[16]" If Musk can be said to have founded Tesla because he was an early investor, then the same logic must apply here. Musk was given $400m by the government before ever flying a rocket.
  - Retric 4y ago
    That’s mangling the timeline a little. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and started launching rockets in 2006, it also received the NASA contract in 2006. SpaceX didn’t have a successful launch at the time let alone a proven system, but they had plenty to show. Further they where one of 2 winners splitting the initial 800M budget for COTS with Rocketplane Kistler. They are remembered because Rocketplane Kistler failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketplane_Kistler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketplane_Kistler
    - adastra22 4y ago
      Also the COTS award was delivery-based. They didn't get paid unless/until they delivered a working rocket. Had SpaceX failed on their first 4 attempts, which was paid for almost entirely with Musk's initial investment, then they wouldn't have seen enough of that COTS contract award.
      - kidme5 4y ago
        According to Mike Griffin who gave them the money, Substantial amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, are being provided to the private companies. If SpaceX continues on along its current path, it will have received approximately $1.2 billion in government money from the collective programs. I’m rounding, but with this recent $400-plus million award under CCiCap [Commercial Crew integrated Capability], that brings the total SpaceX funding to something around $1.2 billion, maybe a little more. That’s—I will only say in my view—excessive, especially since in testimony last year the SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, indicated that the private funding involved was not more than $200 million. $100 million of his own money that he had brought in from a prior enterprise, and then he alluded to the fact—I’m trying to recall the testimony on an ad hoc basis, but the point is that there’s less than $200 million of private capital in SpaceX and $1.2 billion of government capital. https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD_1-12-13.htm https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/hist... (Michael Griffin worked closely with Elon before SpaceX was founded at the Mars Society and worked on Brilliant Pebbles and DC-X which the Falcon 9 was based upon) Given all that government money, it was a low risk private investment for Elon.

That whole spacex origin myth is ridiculous. Musk goes to Russia to buy an ICBM? Right. Then, having never touched a rocket, Musk is given $400M to start spacex? Ok.

adastra22 4y ago

Musk wasn’t given $400M to start SpaceX. What are you talking about? He self-funded with money from PayPal until the first successful Falcon 1 launch.

irthomasthomas 4y ago
Read the links. "In 2002, Griffin was President and COO of In-Q-Tel, a private enterprise funded by the CIA to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve national security interests. During this time, he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia where they attempted to purchase ICBMs. The unsuccessful trip is credited as directly leading to the formation of SpaceX.[11] Griffin was an early advocate for Musk calling him a potential “Henry Ford for the rocket industry".[12] After In-Q-Tel, Griffin served as Chief Engineer and Associate Administrator for Space Exploration at NASA Headquarters. In 2005, he was appointed NASA Administrator where he conceived and introduced Commercial Resupply Services and crew transportation services for the International Space Station.[13] Twenty aerospace companies applied to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, but only SpaceX was selected and given $396 million--a surprising bet given the new company had never flown a rocket.[14] In December 2008, with SpaceX again on the verge of bankruptcy, Griffin awarded SpaceX along with his own Orbital Sciences company each contracts with a combined value of $3.5 billion.[15] Elon Musk credited the NASA contract as saving his company.[16]" If Musk can be said to have founded Tesla because he was an early investor, then the same logic must apply here. Musk was given $400m by the government before ever flying a rocket.
- Retric 4y ago
  That’s mangling the timeline a little. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and started launching rockets in 2006, it also received the NASA contract in 2006. SpaceX didn’t have a successful launch at the time let alone a proven system, but they had plenty to show. Further they where one of 2 winners splitting the initial 800M budget for COTS with Rocketplane Kistler. They are remembered because Rocketplane Kistler failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketplane_Kistler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketplane_Kistler
  - adastra22 4y ago
    Also the COTS award was delivery-based. They didn't get paid unless/until they delivered a working rocket. Had SpaceX failed on their first 4 attempts, which was paid for almost entirely with Musk's initial investment, then they wouldn't have seen enough of that COTS contract award.
    - kidme5 4y ago
      According to Mike Griffin who gave them the money, Substantial amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, are being provided to the private companies. If SpaceX continues on along its current path, it will have received approximately $1.2 billion in government money from the collective programs. I’m rounding, but with this recent $400-plus million award under CCiCap [Commercial Crew integrated Capability], that brings the total SpaceX funding to something around $1.2 billion, maybe a little more. That’s—I will only say in my view—excessive, especially since in testimony last year the SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, indicated that the private funding involved was not more than $200 million. $100 million of his own money that he had brought in from a prior enterprise, and then he alluded to the fact—I’m trying to recall the testimony on an ad hoc basis, but the point is that there’s less than $200 million of private capital in SpaceX and $1.2 billion of government capital. https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/C3PO/GriffinMD/GriffinMD_1-12-13.htm https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/hist... (Michael Griffin worked closely with Elon before SpaceX was founded at the Mars Society and worked on Brilliant Pebbles and DC-X which the Falcon 9 was based upon) Given all that government money, it was a low risk private investment for Elon.