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If it was anyone else, I would have been sceptical, but it's Elon Musk.
by sidcool 13y ago
If it was anyone else, I would have been sceptical, but it's Elon Musk.
- osipov 13y agohe is constantly lionized on HN but what did he personally accomplish besides getting acquired by PayPal?
- ykl 13y agoHe built Tesla Motors and SpaceX, for a start.
- jerf 13y agoAnd I'd further observe in context that SpaceX has already delivered to the Space Station, in rockets designed to carry humans that simply haven't been certified and trusted by experience yet, as opposed to rockets that are fundamentally incapable of carrying humans for some reason. It's essentially impossible to have any more credibility here without actually having delivered astronauts to the space station, which is nearly the only step remaining.
- sidcool 13y agoI deeply respect the man for his vision. I watched a documentary on him. In 2008, he was close to bankruptcy. He had a fleet of Tesla cars that had to be recalled due to faults. SpaceX had had three failed launches and he had no money to pour in. What did he do? He thought of trying for the fourth and final time. It worked!! In his own words, Elon said with tears in his eyes, that if the fourth launch had failed, he would have been broke. The next day he got a call from NASA. That saved SpaceX. I know hero worship is not very healthy, but can't help but marvel at Elon's vision.
- gutnor 13y agoNo need to be skeptical - that's logical, why use a foreign country as your main provider, especially a country you are not always in agreement with. The larger question though is if that is beneficial for the market as a whole. The idea of NASA not doing stuff internally is to benefit from the cost efficiency of the market. If NASA uses mainly SpaceX, they run the risk of creating a Halliburton like symbiosis and in that case you wonder why they don't do stuff internally rather than giving a share of taxpayer money to private shareholder and destroying the whole market by over-favoring one company in particular.
- DennisP 13y agoSpaceX is doing rather well with regard to cost efficiency. And they're not asking for special treatment, just for the opportunity to bid.