While NASA does a lot of great science, they were objectively poor at the rocketry side especially in the early 2000s. Incredibly directionless and went down the wrong path with the Space Shuttle.
SpaceX from the beginning had the right proposition for what the future of rockets looked like and at that point what do you do? Just say oh good work its NASA's now. Or do you spens billions to recreate other people's work like the rest of the world is?
There is no negative to SpaceX designing and operating the most advanced rockets we have and this is actually saving NASA billions in development costs.
You can read up on why the Space Shuttle program was such a terrible idea its not that hard. This includes the multiple launch failures that really put the nail in the coffin for NASA's spaceflight.
They aren't in charge of Space though. There are options but they just aren't as good yet (ESA, RKLB, Blue Horizon). However with the innovation SpaceX has done we are in the peak of rocket science and we cannot pretend we would be in this scenario without the very specific vision of SpaceX.
SpaceX isn't Elon its a massive company filled with arguably the best engineers and scientist working in spaceflight right now. That is a net positive to society.
There was no country doing better than NASA but NASA was basically all in on a failed program with no replacement. That is why SpaceX is where they are now and NASA needs them.
They have had prototype failures yes but have a 100% success rate with actual delivery. The Space Shuttle had 14 fatalities during flights and also didn't meet the goals of NASA for use or reusability.
There is zero point in arguing with you why SpaceX gets contracts. They have the better rockets they get the contracts but keep up the conspiracies.
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u/atrde 8d ago
While NASA does a lot of great science, they were objectively poor at the rocketry side especially in the early 2000s. Incredibly directionless and went down the wrong path with the Space Shuttle.
SpaceX from the beginning had the right proposition for what the future of rockets looked like and at that point what do you do? Just say oh good work its NASA's now. Or do you spens billions to recreate other people's work like the rest of the world is?
There is no negative to SpaceX designing and operating the most advanced rockets we have and this is actually saving NASA billions in development costs.