What do you think about this private company SpaceX just profiled on 60 Minutes to replace NASA?

[NNN0LHI]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX

SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or more popularly and informally known as SpaceX, is an American space transport company that operates out of Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by former PayPal entrepreneur Elon Musk. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 space boosters, both of which are built with a goal of becoming reusable launch vehicles. SpaceX is also developing the Dragon spacecraft to be flown into orbit by Falcon 9 launch vehicles.

In order to control quality and costs, SpaceX designs, tests and fabricates the majority of their components in-house, including the Merlin, Kestrel, and Draco rocket engines used on the Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft. In 2006, NASA awarded the company a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract to design and demonstrate a launch system to resupply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). On 9 December 2010, the launch of the COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the first privately-funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

NASA has also awarded SpaceX a contract to develop and demonstrate a human-rated Dragon as part of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program to replace the Space Shuttle as a crew transporter to the ISS. SpaceX is planning its first crewed Dragon/Falcon9 flight in 2015, when it expects to have a fully certified, human-rated launch escape system incorporated into the spacecraft.

Besides NASA contracts, SpaceX has signed contracts with private sector companies, non-American government agencies and the American military for its launch services. It has already launched, for a paying customer, a low earth orbiting satellite with its Falcon 1 booster in 2009. The company plans to launch its first commercial geostationary satellite in 2013 from a Falcon 9.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. I wish I could afford to dream that big.

[sakabatou]

2. I think it's good and bad

It's good that private endeavors are going into space. It's bad as NASA has had it's funding significantly cut.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

29. why do people keep saying that NASA's funding was cut when its overall budget increased?

Yes, some programs were scrapped mainly the Constellation one, but that doesn't mean their budget got cut

[DJ13]

3. Just what we need

The commercialization of space.

[Johonny]

14. +1

to date space hasn't exactly been a huge win money wise. Of course if you cut out the government not for profit agencies that service the USAF and NASA then you can charge the government anything you want. I like that SpaceX they developed a USA only kerosene/LOX engine. I dislike the thought of private companies operating in space with no federal oversight. While SpaceX is likely to HAVE to have oversight from the USAF, NASA and FAA. If they lobby the libertarians in congress then those entities will go away. Of course without the cost of oversight ULA and ATK will suddenly get a lot cheaper too and then SpaceX might find real economic competition. Do I think the head of SpaceX is going to get his dream of retiring on Mars. No. Do I think he might get his dream of running the oversight non-profits out of business and making space totally private. Who knows, we tried that in the 90s and it lead to higher costs, and a much higher failure rate. But as you know the same insane people keep trying the same insane thing over in over again expecting different results. In the end space will likely emerge exactly like it is now. A mixture of civil, commercial, public, non-profit and privately owned companies. Why, because it seems to work best that way in the 60s, 70s, 80s...

[girl gone mad]

4. How can they replace NASA when they are 99% dependent on NASA..

for funding?

[joshcryer]

20. More than half of their manifest is non-NASA, non-government.

Though NASA's Cargo Resupply Contracts pay far more than regular providers, so in the end, NASA makes up about 3/5ths or maybe 2/3rd of their income. It's still cheaper for NASA and taxpayers than the Shuttle was and it opens up a new commercial venture space. For perspective, the entire Falcon 9 development program (before Commercial Crew) cost-ed as much as the launchpad for the Ares I (NASA's cost-plus approach).

I do not think that they will replace NASA, but they will make waves within commercial space in general. They will replace, say, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, whom NASA is going to use anyway. NASA is getting out of the rocket business.

For the better.

[girl gone mad]

23. They would be out of business if it wasn't for the NASA contracts.

and they wouldn't be able to raise capital to invest in their projects.

The idea that a company like SpaceX could replace NASA is completely ludicrous.

[joshcryer]

25. I don't think that's true, I think they would've stayed small...

...and continued to grow. I think NASA just sped up their development process.

The reason I say this is because the rocket industry is heavily tied to MIC. MIC has no limits to costs for things. So a MIC rocket would cost 5-10 times as much as it really would cost in reality if you ran a business that wasn't eating taxpayer money.

Meanwhile I do think NASA should get out of the rocket business. There was a lot of controversy when Obama canceled Bush's BS Constellation program, because the solid rocket boosters used in the Space Shuttle and later the Ares I were being subsidized by NASA. Solid rocket boosters used by the military.

If SpaceX is successful with their reusable rocket design, they will change everything.

[backscatter712]

5. I like SpaceX.

Say what you will about commercialization, but in a very short period of time, and for a cost that's a small fraction of the space shuttle, they've developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, which have both flown and taken objects into orbit, and they've developed the Dragon Capsule, which has also successfully flown once, is going to fly a second time to dock with the International Space Station, and in the very near future, will be deployed in a man-rated version that can take astronauts to & from the station.

They're clearly doing at least some things right.

[Zalatix]

9. But how many corners got cut?

[Muskypundit]

13. None of their rockets have blown in bits killing dozens.

[joshcryer]

19. Hahaha, if you've followed SpaceX you'd know that they're 2-3 years behind schedule.

They were supposed to dock with the ISS in 2011 at the latest (per COTS). They were predicting timeframes of 2008-2009. Really. They're being super careful here.

[jwirr]

6. Much of our data about the climate etc. comes from NASA. Is a private corporation going to give

us honest data?

[joshcryer]

18. They are merely a service provider.

The scientists' jobs are to make sure that their instruments are properly adjusted. The engineers make sure it works.

[arcane1]

7. I don't have a problem with them in priciple

Contracting with SpaceX is along the same lines as contracting with JPL, basically. What's most important to me is that space remains part of the global commons: It can not be militarized or corporatized.

The day I see a McDonald's or Apple logo on the moon, for example, is the day I give up on us freakin' monkeys.

[Art_from_Ark]

24. JPL is actually part of NASA

which is run in partnership with Cal Tech. It's not a commercial venture.

[arcane1]

30. Ah, I didn't know that

I still don't want to see logos on the moon

[prairierose]

8. Will a private corporation benefit the commons?

The whole society benefited from the research that NASA did. Will a private corporation share any of the benefits or will they just try to profit from any discoveries without sharing the science?

This is why government sponsored research benefits all of us and not just a few.

[longship]

10. We need both public and private sector here

Without NASA and the Apollo Program there would be no SpaceX.

NASA does the cutting edge science and engineering, funded by the government which no private enterprise could afford. But there comes a time when the technology is developed far enough that the private sector can afford to do things basically on their own. But, without the original research and development the private enterprises never get off the ground.

Only governments have the large scale resources to do the pure research necessary to complete these ambitious projects. E.G., The LHC project is so big that it took multiple governments to fund it. (No, it's not likely that private enterprise will ever figure out how to make money building particle accelerators.)

I think that's the basic deal here.

[arcane1]

12. Perfectly said

[IDemo]

11. He did build quite an impressive automobile

I missed the first part of the story; is he still associated with Tesla?

[joshcryer]

17. Yep, he recently showed off the Model X. And he's still doing Solar City.

Solar City, unlike Solyndra, did not go under when the recession hit.

[joshcryer]

15. Buy their IPO. They're going to go to Mars.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Amazing shit.

I like Elon Musk. Cool, visionary cat.

[certainot]

21. plans to privatize/militarize nasa (repukes) for star wars is what fucked it up, but

how this fits in......

[arely staircase]

22. in case anyone missed it

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZDa25M-de70&v=ZDa25M-de70&gl=US

[WillyT]

26. I Think They Will Rename The Moon, Mars, Et Al. ... After Their Corporate Sponsors...

It's happened before... here on Earth.

[Gore1FL]

27. They aren't replacing NASA

NASA's mission is to push the frontier. Low earth orbit was the frontier in the early 1960s.

[krispos42]

28. After 50 years of government subsidies...

...there is finally enough technical know-how and trained personnel to make space profitable to the private sector.

NASA, the Air Force, and to a lesser extent the Navy spend billions over the past 50 years learning the ins and outs of spaceflight for both peaceful and warfare purposes. Materials, specifications, design, techniques, procedures, testing... all that stuff and all the people that know how to use that stuff was created with a multi-generational government subsidy.

Now, it may be time for private enterprise to take the ball and run with it, but we and they had better not forget how much money and effort went into the ball.