3 ms·
100% - given the resources we have, America is far underperforming at the moment
by itsnowandnever 1y ago
100% - given the resources we have, America is far underperforming at the moment
- knowitnone3 1y ago[flagged]
- gpt5 1y agoI really don't get this sentiment. 80% of orbital launches last year were Americans. The USA hasn't been this dominant in the space race since the 60s.
- timschmidt 1y ago99% of those were SpaceX
- gpt5 1y agoExactly. The US private space industry is thriving and profitable. That's exactly what makes it so efficient and dominant.
- Waterluvian 1y agoCapitalism is incredibly efficient this way and it really should be appreciated as being such an advantage. I wonder if it’s not a free advantage though. I suspect there’s a risk that it might diminish the ability to accomplish projects that aren’t compatible with capitalism. Ie. ROI isn’t sufficiently short term, ROI is socialized, no ROI at all, excessive risk. An open question as I really don’t have an answer either way: what’s the last mega project the U.S. succeeded in completing that wasn’t directly tied to a short term business plan? Something for future generations or a major environmental project or a transportation or infrastructure project, etc.
- QuadmasterXLII 1y agoI mean, falcon 9 reusability is a decent example, if 13 years from work starts to reusability is proven commercially viable counts as a long term business plan.
- harimau777 1y agoThe private space industry doesn't belong to the US, it belongs to the billionaires. We might even be better to have no one advancing space travel than to have only the billionaires doing it. At least then they can't find some way to use it to screw us over.
- parineum 1y agoSpaceX isn't a billionaire.
- mysecretaccount 1y agoClearly the poster is saying that SpaceX is "the billionaires". SpaceX is majority owned by billionaires.
- harimau777 1y agoIt's not a billionaire but it is owned by a billionaire.
- monooso 1y agoGenuine question, is it profitable because of government contracts?
- iknowstuff 1y agonah Starlink is the money printer
- ls612 1y agoSpaceX exists because of commercial resupply but that was still a good deal for the government since it was cheaper than the shuttles or buying extra Soyuz cargo launches.
- rowanG077 1y agoI don't know. I also don't know why that is relevant. Just because a business is selling a good or service to the government doesn't mean it's not competitive, dominant, efficient or really anything.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- zm262 1y agoUS dominates with SpaceX internet project. For moon landing it's far behind at this point.
- briandw 1y agoFar behind who? China still doesn’t have a Falcon 9 competitor, let alone Starship.
- m4rtink 1y agoThez certainly have some Falcon 9 clones in full scale testing - would not he surprised if they have it working in a year or two, there is just too much money on the table.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]