> The private sector has never done anything like what NASA has accomplished Nonsense. NASA spent 50 years using disposable lift vehicles. Only the government

> The private sector has never done anything like what NASA has accomplished Nonsense. NASA spent 50 years using disposable lift vehicles. Only the government could bring itself to create single-use articles that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. SpaceX has fixed this by building the Falcon 9, which is not only reusable, it has the highest success rate of any orbital rocket in human history. They're not only "doing something like what NASA has accomplished", they are objectively doing it better and far, far cheaper. > and NASA is far and away the most successful explorers and engineers in human history. I have no reason to believe anyone else could do it. No belief necessary. SpaceX has already done it. > Has Space-X left Earth orbit? Yes. > Look at NASA's budget (or any other source) and you'll find they do far, far more. My point wasn't that they didn't do a bunch of stuff, but rather that they didn't do enough to justify their $0.25 Trillion per-decade budget. > The all caps, btw, are against HN guidelines. Ah, I see that in the guidelines. I'll avoid them in the future, thanks!