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I especially like how people act like SpaceX invented reusable rockets. These people simultaneously know about SpaceX and yet somehow don't know about the Space

• CydeWeys 3y ago
  By the end of the program, the space shuttle cost $1.6 BILLION per flight, or more than disposable designs. There's no point in doing reusable if it's insanely expensive! The SpaceX innovation was actually making reusability pay off. Sadly the government contractors only ever had an incentive to make each launch as expensive as possible, which they absolutely accomplished.
  • demondemidi 3y ago
    Yes, but NASA has had the GOP looking over its shoulder trying to literally cancel it for decades (and not the "whiny cancel" that dudes throw around today, instead actual, real cancellation). The GOP was ready to pounce on ANY failure NASA had as an excuse to cancel it, which is a large part of the reason for the huge safety precautions. The o-ring fuckup almost did them in. If NASA was loose with regulations, they would have gotten cancelled, and if they are too strict with regulations, they get ridiculed. It's a lose-lose. SpaceX has no such oversight, and the GOP loves Musk. A SpaceX rocket could kill a hundred people and SpaceX would just keep truckin' like nothing happened (recall, Musk has said repeatedly deaths are part of progress). NASA had no such luxury. I'm certain there was waste due to nepotism, but let's not pretend Musk isn't the beneficiary of the same nepotism. (It all should end, and hope some day it does, call me naive.)