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Surely it's not the first private company to launch something into orbit. Haven't Boeing and/or Lockheed been doing this for years? What's different/special a

Surely it's not the first private company to launch something into orbit. Haven't Boeing and/or Lockheed been doing this for years? What's different/special about SpaceX?

RK 17y ago
Wasn't a government contract from start to finish?
ori_b 17y ago
Haven't Boeing and Lockheed been doing government stuff for almost all their launching? I could be wrong, but I don't remember hearing about their in-house rocketry.
- tocomment 17y ago
  Boeing says they have commercial customers: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bls/deltaHistory.html http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bls/deltaHistory.h...
  - gaius 17y ago
    Yes but development of the Delta was 100% underwritten by the DoD. Kinda like how the 747 was subsidized by the AWACS contract... And they've the nerve to complain when the French government bungs a few Euros to Airbus.
    - evgen 17y ago
      747!?!? Try 707. All of Boeing's commercial airframe have been self-funded since before Airbus existed. There may be internal cross-subsidy from other defense projects (e.g. borrowing to develop A by using the federal funding of B as a loan guarantee) but no Boeing airframe you can buy today was started or funded as a DoD project.
    - billswift 17y ago
      747 was developed on an AF contract but it long predated the AWACS. It was developed as a competitor to the Lockheed C-5 in the 1960s for long-range heavy lift transport.
physcab 17y ago
These guys have tried: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_Aerospace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_Aerospace Andrew Beal is pretty famous, but he's better at banking than aerospace. There are lots of private companies building components for space exploration, but their margins are capped because their customer is the government. Atleast this is the gist I get from talking to my dad who is a program manager at Aerojet, which makes boosters for Delta and previously Titan.

Surely it's not the first private company to launch something into orbit. Haven't Boeing and/or Lockheed been doing this for years? What's different/special about SpaceX?

RK 17y ago

Wasn't a government contract from start to finish?

ori_b 17y ago

Haven't Boeing and Lockheed been doing government stuff for almost all their launching? I could be wrong, but I don't remember hearing about their in-house rocketry.

tocomment 17y ago
Boeing says they have commercial customers: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bls/deltaHistory.html http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bls/deltaHistory.h...
- gaius 17y ago
  Yes but development of the Delta was 100% underwritten by the DoD. Kinda like how the 747 was subsidized by the AWACS contract... And they've the nerve to complain when the French government bungs a few Euros to Airbus.
  - evgen 17y ago
    747!?!? Try 707. All of Boeing's commercial airframe have been self-funded since before Airbus existed. There may be internal cross-subsidy from other defense projects (e.g. borrowing to develop A by using the federal funding of B as a loan guarantee) but no Boeing airframe you can buy today was started or funded as a DoD project.
  - billswift 17y ago
    747 was developed on an AF contract but it long predated the AWACS. It was developed as a competitor to the Lockheed C-5 in the 1960s for long-range heavy lift transport.

physcab 17y ago

These guys have tried: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_Aerospace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_Aerospace Andrew Beal is pretty famous, but he's better at banking than aerospace. There are lots of private companies building components for space exploration, but their margins are capped because their customer is the government. Atleast this is the gist I get from talking to my dad who is a program manager at Aerojet, which makes boosters for Delta and previously Titan.