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Given the general negativity (often deserved) towards government by entrepreneurs it's important to acknowledge when they do positive things. It's important to

Given the general negativity (often deserved) towards government by entrepreneurs it's important to acknowledge when they do positive things. It's important to also realize they aren't doing this because they're motivated to disrupt the military/industrial complex, they're doing it because Elon is a master of public relations and has promoted SpaceX heavily.

doe88 14y ago
Or maybe because they (the government) think they have a shot to lower the cost of actuals 460M$ launches. Competition is great even for public contracts. Moreover in this case it seems quite unexpected some peoples have been crazy enough to start building rockets and one day directly concurrence and disrupt Boeing and Lockheed. I'm sure Boeing and Lockheed would never have thought such possibility. It's amazing imo.
- pbateman 14y ago
  I'm not sure the government is particularly concerned about cost containment. It's the canonical example of people spending other people's money.
  - ebf 14y ago
    If their budget gets cut, then they will be concerned.
  - mikeash 14y ago
    I would wager that they may not care so much about reducing their annual costs, but they probably do care about per-mission costs. If they can cut their per-unit costs in half, then they can have twice as many toys without having to convince Congress to give them more money.
  - noonespecial 14y ago
    They don't care about the satellites either. They care about the relationships. What they're buying and how much it actually costs is irrelevant compared to who they award the contract to. The big contracts really do have to get awarded to the right people or reelection becomes impossible.
tsotha 14y ago
Whatever the motivations, if Musk can actually deliver at the prices he's aiming for it will be very disruptive.
kunle 14y ago
> they're doing it because Elon is a master of public relations and has promoted SpaceX heavily. While this may be true, one point that your comment doesnt address is that Boeing/Lockheed (and most of the defense industry) are incredibly adept at promoting their business within the broader Gov and DoD. It's both incredible that Elon/SpaceX achieved this milestone amidst intense opposition from the current defense industry, and that the statement from the industry basically defends the practice of massively overshooting on costs and passing that on to the taxpayer.

doe88 14y ago

Or maybe because they (the government) think they have a shot to lower the cost of actuals 460M$ launches. Competition is great even for public contracts. Moreover in this case it seems quite unexpected some peoples have been crazy enough to start building rockets and one day directly concurrence and disrupt Boeing and Lockheed. I'm sure Boeing and Lockheed would never have thought such possibility. It's amazing imo.

pbateman 14y ago
I'm not sure the government is particularly concerned about cost containment. It's the canonical example of people spending other people's money.
- ebf 14y ago
  If their budget gets cut, then they will be concerned.
- mikeash 14y ago
  I would wager that they may not care so much about reducing their annual costs, but they probably do care about per-mission costs. If they can cut their per-unit costs in half, then they can have twice as many toys without having to convince Congress to give them more money.
- noonespecial 14y ago
  They don't care about the satellites either. They care about the relationships. What they're buying and how much it actually costs is irrelevant compared to who they award the contract to. The big contracts really do have to get awarded to the right people or reelection becomes impossible.

tsotha 14y ago

Whatever the motivations, if Musk can actually deliver at the prices he's aiming for it will be very disruptive.

kunle 14y ago

> they're doing it because Elon is a master of public relations and has promoted SpaceX heavily. While this may be true, one point that your comment doesnt address is that Boeing/Lockheed (and most of the defense industry) are incredibly adept at promoting their business within the broader Gov and DoD. It's both incredible that Elon/SpaceX achieved this milestone amidst intense opposition from the current defense industry, and that the statement from the industry basically defends the practice of massively overshooting on costs and passing that on to the taxpayer.