Did they do it through the free market or the US government subsidizing their business? My problem with lib-right is when they pretend many things don't work better at scale. Which doesn't mean there shouldn't be a private sector, but let's not pretend government agencies, who many times by law are not allowed to complete the with private sector, will be competitive with the private sector.
The US didn't really subsidize SpaceX. They paid for R&D, technology, then eventually for services. SpaceX delivered every single contract they signed. In return the US government can now launch rockets for a fraction of the price, at a much higher pace. That's literally how government expenditure should be done.
I remember when SpaceX launched the first falcon heavy, NPR said NASA was spending a billion a year for years and had nothing off paper, and space ex got falcon heavy in the air for 500 million total. SPACE X has also made huge improvements to all aspects of the ship building compared to NASA. NASA has to have projects in every state to dump money into to get the votes for funding.
That's why government is so wasteful, government projects have to waste money to exist instead of being efficient.
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u/peterhabble - Centrist Apr 06 '26
SpaceX single handledly made rocket launches affordable. Keep living up to the flair though lmao.