this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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Enough Musk Spam
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Not the greatest example, imo.
SpaceX has been very consistent in delivering on its government contracts with far more cost efficiency than any of its competitors.
The most glaring example is the Commercial Crew Program. They were given far less money than Boeing, and it looks like they might end up being the sole US provider of commercial crew to the ISS.
Starship HLS (moon lander starship) is government funded, but core Starship is not, it's financed with private equity - so the rocket explosions haven't been on the taxpayers' dime.
That all said, Elon doesn't really run SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell does - which is probably the smartest business decision Elon has ever made.
"Better than Boeing" is very low bar, ATM. But SpaceX technology appears to be lagging India - which put a probe into Marsian orbit for $75M a full ten years ago - and Russians - whose Soyuz rocket continues to provide the cheapest LEO lift at $3800/kg.
SpaceX is in the traditional American contractor model of Late and Overbudget. What's more they don't pay their bills on time.
As an American firm, they're the best of the worst. Intentionally, they're experimenting with interesting techniques, but they aren't outcompeting their global peers.
What's that got to do with anything? SpaceX isn't traded and doesn't pay dividends.
The company is impressive technically, I guess? I don't know really. Like I wrote before, Shotwell is running it, not Mr ego personified, so maybe the shine hasn't worn off like it did for Tesla and Twitter for some people?
I like what they've achieved, I think that it will motivate for ULA and Boeing to 'do better' and they've proved its possible to succeed at a number of rocket technologies that had been previously written off, like cost effective reusability and full flow staged combustion.
That said, I'm not going to be upset if ULA pulls ahead of them, or if Rocket Lab has a huge win, or if ArianeSpace decides that it's time to stop sitting on their hands. I'm a fan of space technology, and I don't particularly care which company advances the cause.
*Edit: motivate not moticate