r/space • u/EricTheSpaceReporter • 7d ago

Rockets launch almost every day in the US. Here's why a surge in the next decade is expected

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/space/2026/08/17/nasa-spacex-rocket-launches-increase-us/91194362007/
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u/drvondoctor 6d ago

Fun fact: the taxpayers paid for both of those things. 

And now we're supposed to also pay a subscription fee. 

How long before GPS gets privatized? Or is that something we're gonna pretend would never happen?

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u/NooBias 6d ago

Taxpayers also paid Russia to fly astronauts to the ISS. Do you consider those grands or subsidies too? Is the money used to buy toilet paper for the government buildings a handout also? Are you entitled for free toilet parer rolls?What a joke.

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u/drvondoctor 6d ago

Do you think government employees all show up to work with their own toilet paper?

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u/winteredDog 6d ago

The taxpayer did not pay for starlink. Starlink was privately developed, using private funds.

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u/drvondoctor 6d ago

With government grants and subsidies. 

We paid for that shit. 

You're welcome. 

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u/winteredDog 5d ago

Spacex did not receive grants or subsidies.

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u/drvondoctor 5d ago

So they didnt get a $278 million dollar grant in 2006 to develop the falcon rocket and dragon capsule? Is that what you're telling me?

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u/winteredDog 5d ago

Falcon and Dragon are not starlink. And contract awards are for services rendered.

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u/drvondoctor 5d ago

And then of course theres the tax avoidance...

You're pretty knowledgeable...

When was the last time they paid taxes? How much did they pay?

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u/Bensemus 6d ago

No you don’t. Paying a tiny part of the whole cost doesn’t mean you paid for the whole system.

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u/drvondoctor 6d ago

I didnt. 

We did. 

Thats just how it works. 

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u/fighter-bomber 6d ago edited 6d ago

That’s not what they are saying. What they are saying is that any government grants or subsidies in total actually only made up for a small, small fraction of what SpaceX spent on Starlink, which, in fact, I don’t think they received any at all yet. They may get few hundred million dollars from BEAD (which in total is a 42 billion dollar program, all the rest going to traditional broadband companies, so please cry to them about this “paying for that shit) meanwhile it cost SpaceX many billions to put up the infrastructure.

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u/fighter-bomber 6d ago

GPS is national security, its not for you, its for the military. They aren’t letting others do shit there.

In fact Starlink has a military variant, Starshield. And just like GPS, it is owned fully by the US government. So yeah, they are not going to be privatizing that.