3 ms·

NASA and SpaceX aren't competitors. NASA's mission statement is "explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the wo

NASA and SpaceX aren't competitors. NASA's mission statement is "explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery". SpaceX is a p̶u̶b̶l̶i̶c̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶d̶e̶d̶ privately held company whose mission is to increase shareholder value.

nixass 1y ago
SpaceX is not publicly traded
kortilla 1y ago
SpaceX’s mission is very explicitly not shareholder aligned, which is why Musk explicitly said he would never take it public or sell his majority stake. The mission is mars and the money making endeavors (starlink) are to bring in the cash to do that.
- antonvs 1y ago
  > The mission is mars It's hard to believe that by now Musk still hasn't realized what a ridiculous idea this is. That realization could explain his weird pivot into e.g. buying Twitter and far-right politics. A midlife crisis triggered by discovering that his childhood dream was just a fantasy.
  - marcusverus 1y ago
    > It's hard to believe that by now Musk still hasn't realized what a ridiculous idea this is. Maybe one day Elon Musk will understand space as well as you do.
- moolcool 1y ago
  Even if he were sincere, sacrificing NASA because it's mission has some overlap with the stated goal of a billionaire is ridiculous.
  - kortilla 1y ago
    That’s unrelated to what I’m saying. My point is that spacex isn’t driven by shareholders
fnordpiglet 1y ago
Specifically NASA is an exploration and science mission while SpaceX is a lift and transit provider for organizations like NASA. Historically NASA did their own lift and transit because no one else could and they seeded and researched the capabilities that SpaceX and other private ventures do today. This is a fine arrangement because commoditizing delta V is not exploration and science, it’s the means to it. I’d note SpaceX is by far the most successful but by far not the only player in that space. The brain drain and funding attack is on non military goals of NASA as well as on college and specifically graduate level people in the United States because they don’t ideologically align to the president. It’s a cultural revolution America style.
- somenameforme 1y ago
  SpaceX's entire mission is to get people to Mars en masse. They revolutionized spaceflight precisely as a part of that mission, not as an ends in and of itself. For instance the Polaris Dawn mission [1] sent humans further into space than we've been since the Apollo Program, intentionally traversed the Van Allen radiation belt, and carried out the first commercial spacewalk, executed experiments and so forth. And all of this was carried out by SpaceX. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_Dawn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_Dawn
  - fnordpiglet 1y ago
    That’s Elon Musks goal, but it’s not what they do. They lift and transport. Even the goal of lifting and transporting to mars is lift and transport. You could argue it’s all means to and end, but they’ve not done the end and they have only ever done the means and will continue to do so - making it a lift and transport company :-)

nixass 1y ago

SpaceX is not publicly traded

kortilla 1y ago

SpaceX’s mission is very explicitly not shareholder aligned, which is why Musk explicitly said he would never take it public or sell his majority stake. The mission is mars and the money making endeavors (starlink) are to bring in the cash to do that.

antonvs 1y ago
> The mission is mars It's hard to believe that by now Musk still hasn't realized what a ridiculous idea this is. That realization could explain his weird pivot into e.g. buying Twitter and far-right politics. A midlife crisis triggered by discovering that his childhood dream was just a fantasy.
- marcusverus 1y ago
  > It's hard to believe that by now Musk still hasn't realized what a ridiculous idea this is. Maybe one day Elon Musk will understand space as well as you do.
moolcool 1y ago
Even if he were sincere, sacrificing NASA because it's mission has some overlap with the stated goal of a billionaire is ridiculous.
- kortilla 1y ago
  That’s unrelated to what I’m saying. My point is that spacex isn’t driven by shareholders

fnordpiglet 1y ago

Specifically NASA is an exploration and science mission while SpaceX is a lift and transit provider for organizations like NASA. Historically NASA did their own lift and transit because no one else could and they seeded and researched the capabilities that SpaceX and other private ventures do today. This is a fine arrangement because commoditizing delta V is not exploration and science, it’s the means to it. I’d note SpaceX is by far the most successful but by far not the only player in that space. The brain drain and funding attack is on non military goals of NASA as well as on college and specifically graduate level people in the United States because they don’t ideologically align to the president. It’s a cultural revolution America style.

somenameforme 1y ago
SpaceX's entire mission is to get people to Mars en masse. They revolutionized spaceflight precisely as a part of that mission, not as an ends in and of itself. For instance the Polaris Dawn mission [1] sent humans further into space than we've been since the Apollo Program, intentionally traversed the Van Allen radiation belt, and carried out the first commercial spacewalk, executed experiments and so forth. And all of this was carried out by SpaceX. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_Dawn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_Dawn
- fnordpiglet 1y ago
  That’s Elon Musks goal, but it’s not what they do. They lift and transport. Even the goal of lifting and transporting to mars is lift and transport. You could argue it’s all means to and end, but they’ve not done the end and they have only ever done the means and will continue to do so - making it a lift and transport company :-)