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It has the capacity to derail it forever as SpaceX has largely burned through their NASA cash already.

bryanlarsen 2y ago
SpaceX is not cash constrained. Every offering they do is extremely limited in terms of who they let invest, yet is still always massively oversubscribed. They're spending multiple billions per year on both Starship and Starlink but haven't been tapping the capital markets -- IOW internal cash flow is also massive.
- whamlastxmas 2y ago
  Elon would also undoubtedly pour his Tesla money into SpaceX to keep it afloat. He's a lot more passionate about SpaceX than Tesla. But it's a moot point because SpaceX has a massively profitable monopoly on efficient space launches and probably will for a very long time.
  - jojobas 2y ago
    Which Tesla money? He said if they don't "solve" self-driving Tesla is worth zero. Nobody really knows how profitable SpaceX is.
Culonavirus 2y ago
NASA's cash is nice to have. But it's not what's important to SpaceX at this point. Their estimated valuation is somewhere in the $200bn range. Their cash cow is Starlink (with 3 million subscribers and growing each month), the future profitability and competitivity of which is highly dependent on Starship being operational and fully reusable. I know Elon says Multiplanetary this and Mars that but the real reason for the Starship push is Starlink. They need Starship to put bigger (V2s non-minis and V3s) and more satellites into the orbit if they want to get to that 35000 number this decade and not break the bank. They need to hurry before the likes of Amazon get their shit together and start building their own internet satellite constellations.
- marssaxman 2y ago
  > I know Elon says Multiplanetary this and Mars that but the real reason for the Starship push is Starlink. Elon Musk has been talking about Mars colonization since 2001, and first brought up the idea of a "Mars Colonial Transporter" mega-rocket in 2012. Starlink did not come along until 2016; that business was created to provide a profit-generating customer for Starship.

SpaceX is not cash constrained. Every offering they do is extremely limited in terms of who they let invest, yet is still always massively oversubscribed. They're spending multiple billions per year on both Starship and Starlink but haven't been tapping the capital markets -- IOW internal cash flow is also massive.

whamlastxmas 2y ago
Elon would also undoubtedly pour his Tesla money into SpaceX to keep it afloat. He's a lot more passionate about SpaceX than Tesla. But it's a moot point because SpaceX has a massively profitable monopoly on efficient space launches and probably will for a very long time.
- jojobas 2y ago
  Which Tesla money? He said if they don't "solve" self-driving Tesla is worth zero. Nobody really knows how profitable SpaceX is.

Culonavirus 2y ago

NASA's cash is nice to have. But it's not what's important to SpaceX at this point. Their estimated valuation is somewhere in the $200bn range. Their cash cow is Starlink (with 3 million subscribers and growing each month), the future profitability and competitivity of which is highly dependent on Starship being operational and fully reusable. I know Elon says Multiplanetary this and Mars that but the real reason for the Starship push is Starlink. They need Starship to put bigger (V2s non-minis and V3s) and more satellites into the orbit if they want to get to that 35000 number this decade and not break the bank. They need to hurry before the likes of Amazon get their shit together and start building their own internet satellite constellations.

marssaxman 2y ago
> I know Elon says Multiplanetary this and Mars that but the real reason for the Starship push is Starlink. Elon Musk has been talking about Mars colonization since 2001, and first brought up the idea of a "Mars Colonial Transporter" mega-rocket in 2012. Starlink did not come along until 2016; that business was created to provide a profit-generating customer for Starship.