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Is Musk even interested in bidding for military contracts? It seems like that runs contrary to his vision of bringing humans to space, and his broader vision of

by Aqueous 12y ago

Is Musk even interested in bidding for military contracts? It seems like that runs contrary to his vision of bringing humans to space, and his broader vision of space exploration for the sole purpose of benefiting (and prolonging the life of) humanity.

brianobush 12y ago
diversification could make the company more robust without sacrificing his vision.
Sanddancer 12y ago
Yes. He's been a rather vocal opponent of the current buddy-buddy arrangement between ULA and the US Military. Also, since the military tends to have a pretty full plate regarding rocket launches, having a military contract would give lots of reoccurring experience in building up for future stages of his goals.
Zancarius 12y ago
I don't see why it would conflict. He gets to prove his rockets function well enough for DoD needs, and SpaceX gets more money/experience. AFAIK, following the retirement of the shuttles, the US no longer has a heavy lift capability. Looking to indigenous companies for filling that void is probably a medium/long term goal.
- Sanddancer 12y ago
  The US still has heavy lift capability from the Delta IV, which will be used for the first few launches of the Orion system. It isn't human rated, though, with that replacement coming in a few years with the Space Launch System/
dba7dba 12y ago
I believe Musk is interested in bringing in money to fund his vision of bringing humans to space. Developing cheaper ways to bring humans to space is very very expensive as we all know. And having military contracts is very very lucrative.
virtue3 12y ago
As much as I love civilian space programs... they've always just been excuses for designing incredible rocket based weapons... "Hey look, we can get a friggin lander to the moon. we can also drop enough nukes from orbit to completely obliterate you too!"
justin66 12y ago
SpaceX is involved in an ongoing lawsuit against ULA and the Air Force because they want to change their acquisition process into an open bidding process: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26041385/spacex-files-include-mccain-claims-lawsuit-over-russian http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26041385/spacex-files-... In other words, yes, he's interested. It's good money that can help to fund the other stuff you mentioned.

by Aqueous 12y ago

brianobush 12y ago

diversification could make the company more robust without sacrificing his vision.

Sanddancer 12y ago

Yes. He's been a rather vocal opponent of the current buddy-buddy arrangement between ULA and the US Military. Also, since the military tends to have a pretty full plate regarding rocket launches, having a military contract would give lots of reoccurring experience in building up for future stages of his goals.

Zancarius 12y ago

I don't see why it would conflict. He gets to prove his rockets function well enough for DoD needs, and SpaceX gets more money/experience. AFAIK, following the retirement of the shuttles, the US no longer has a heavy lift capability. Looking to indigenous companies for filling that void is probably a medium/long term goal.

Sanddancer 12y ago
The US still has heavy lift capability from the Delta IV, which will be used for the first few launches of the Orion system. It isn't human rated, though, with that replacement coming in a few years with the Space Launch System/

dba7dba 12y ago

I believe Musk is interested in bringing in money to fund his vision of bringing humans to space. Developing cheaper ways to bring humans to space is very very expensive as we all know. And having military contracts is very very lucrative.

virtue3 12y ago

As much as I love civilian space programs... they've always just been excuses for designing incredible rocket based weapons... "Hey look, we can get a friggin lander to the moon. we can also drop enough nukes from orbit to completely obliterate you too!"

justin66 12y ago

SpaceX is involved in an ongoing lawsuit against ULA and the Air Force because they want to change their acquisition process into an open bidding process: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26041385/spacex-files-include-mccain-claims-lawsuit-over-russian http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26041385/spacex-files-... In other words, yes, he's interested. It's good money that can help to fund the other stuff you mentioned.