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> During this time, he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia > In December 2008, with SpaceX again on the verge of bankruptcy, Gri

> During this time, he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia > 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 It's crazy how nepotism is still such an important aspect of success today. It's very likely had they never known each other, SpaceX would not exist today, and some other company would have thrived instead. I also don't understand how it's not a conflict of interest to award his own company that contract?

mcpackieh 3y ago
It's very likely that if Michael Griffin and Elon Musk had never met, Elon Musk would not be in the space business at all and Michael Griffin would have induced some other person to play the same role. Orbital Sciences and SpaceX both exist to make "proliferated" LEO constellations possible. He founded one and had his fingers all over the founding of the other. He's gone above and beyond to keep both these companies afloat. Considering the nature and role of the LEO constellation Michael Griffin wants to build, remember Elon Musk's talk about "preventing extinction". Ostensibly he's talking about making a 'backup' population of humanity on Mars, but that makes zero sense. Serious customers for Mars colonization don't actually exist and SpaceX hasn't invested in the development of Mars habitat technology themselves. What they're actually doing is developing boosters capable of launching proliferated LEO constellations for feasible amounts of money (a capability SpaceX is now demonstrating with Starlink.)
- panick21_ 3y ago
  Ok mister smarty pants. How do you create a program for Mars colonialisation without first solving the problem of price to LEO launches. You act as if there was some short cut around that. There isnt. So your argument just fundamentally doesnt work. What would SpaceX invest in refueling if LEO is all they cared about?
mrguyorama 3y ago
>I also don't understand how it's not a conflict of interest to award his own company that contract? This kind of inside dealing is just the status quo in american businesses today. Every CEO is on the board of the companies where their board members are CEOs. Really easy to get your board to approve a comp increase when they know you will do the same for them. Big business is a social club and you ain't in it.
panick21_ 3y ago
The contracts were not given out because of SpaceX issues. This program was ungoing and progressing threw the steps. SpaceX and Orbital were the deserving companies to get the contracts. This is one of the most successful contract in history. Griffin didnt invente COTS, that was anouter group that had been wanting to do a program like that and Griffin was just the administrator. To you have actual evidence the Griffin as administrator actually overwrote the technical comities making these choices in order to help SpaceX. If you dont have that evidence then you are just full of shit talking out of your ass.
- didibus 3y ago
  I'm just quoting the linked Wikipedia article. So if it's inaccurate, my bad. That's all I read of the man.

mcpackieh 3y ago

It's very likely that if Michael Griffin and Elon Musk had never met, Elon Musk would not be in the space business at all and Michael Griffin would have induced some other person to play the same role. Orbital Sciences and SpaceX both exist to make "proliferated" LEO constellations possible. He founded one and had his fingers all over the founding of the other. He's gone above and beyond to keep both these companies afloat. Considering the nature and role of the LEO constellation Michael Griffin wants to build, remember Elon Musk's talk about "preventing extinction". Ostensibly he's talking about making a 'backup' population of humanity on Mars, but that makes zero sense. Serious customers for Mars colonization don't actually exist and SpaceX hasn't invested in the development of Mars habitat technology themselves. What they're actually doing is developing boosters capable of launching proliferated LEO constellations for feasible amounts of money (a capability SpaceX is now demonstrating with Starlink.)

panick21_ 3y ago
Ok mister smarty pants. How do you create a program for Mars colonialisation without first solving the problem of price to LEO launches. You act as if there was some short cut around that. There isnt. So your argument just fundamentally doesnt work. What would SpaceX invest in refueling if LEO is all they cared about?

mrguyorama 3y ago

>I also don't understand how it's not a conflict of interest to award his own company that contract? This kind of inside dealing is just the status quo in american businesses today. Every CEO is on the board of the companies where their board members are CEOs. Really easy to get your board to approve a comp increase when they know you will do the same for them. Big business is a social club and you ain't in it.

panick21_ 3y ago

The contracts were not given out because of SpaceX issues. This program was ungoing and progressing threw the steps. SpaceX and Orbital were the deserving companies to get the contracts. This is one of the most successful contract in history. Griffin didnt invente COTS, that was anouter group that had been wanting to do a program like that and Griffin was just the administrator. To you have actual evidence the Griffin as administrator actually overwrote the technical comities making these choices in order to help SpaceX. If you dont have that evidence then you are just full of shit talking out of your ass.

didibus 3y ago
I'm just quoting the linked Wikipedia article. So if it's inaccurate, my bad. That's all I read of the man.