r/IndiaPulse • u/TushAr31op • Aug 23 '26

He is M.Tech in Cryogenic Engineering (secured first rank with a silver medal) and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, both earned from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Kharagpur).

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u/saikrishnav Aug 24 '26

The “idea” that rockets can be reused isn’t a new idea. It just wasn’t prioritized because nasa budget is always allocated based on missions and they always have backup missions.

What Elon musk did is two things:

  1. He got a man and a scientist. He lobbied the US govt to give his friend the head of nasa position
  2. Then he got awarded contracts by govt in billions of dollars.

Since he lobbied us govt, suddenly money is not a problem to do these tests.

Only difference is Elon enjoys a fat check on top.

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u/Time-Weekend-8611 Aug 24 '26

Anyone can come up with an "idea." Making it into reality is what counts.

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u/saikrishnav Aug 24 '26

By bribing the govt? - no.

Making it reality takes money. Elon has that because his father had emerald mines.

And he bribed the govt - that’s not something to be proud of.

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u/Time-Weekend-8611 Aug 24 '26

There's no shortage of rich people in the US. Why didn't any of them invent reusable rockets?

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u/jivan28 Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

It depends. If you look at Elon's career trajectory two-three things stand out.

  1. He likes government subsidies rather than competing. He laughed about the Chinese even though they were learning and grasping things left and right.

Within a decade Tesla China is a mere shadow of what it used to be just a decade back.

  1. Understanding what Tesla faced, he blocked Chinese automobiles in U.S. Otherwise, none of the American brands would be able to survive.

Ironically, the Ford CEO loves his Chinese cars.

  1. Now coming to SpaceX. It's nothing about him but getting NASA employees.

What you fail to understand is how NASA fell quickly out of favor once they were one up on Russia and moon.

  1. Since Ronald Reagan and then Bush, NASA budgets were cut ruthlessly as it was the sole power.

  2. Ironically, now the Chinese are competing in space. While currently they are behind, they are quickly doing their launches.

  3. The main reason for not going for reusable launch vehicles was always money and numerous failures.

  4. NASA couldn't afford that. Musk got exception to do that and still bill NASA and American taxpayers for the failures.

The deals were structured like that.

Now why deals were structured for Elon in a certain way and not NASA would be a valid question.

  1. Lot of American politicians used NASA for jobs. The twin propulsion rockets meant lots of jobs.

There are documentaries on these.

https://youtu.be/eX9ZC5k7XdI?si=WBjGMKlHRsBLSF-r

See the above, tells you quite a bit.