• Eldritch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Because Republicans gutted NASA for decades. They absolutely loathed that it was a generally beloved program by everyone. And for every dollar of funding saw multiple times that in the value it created. What SpaceX did wasn’t something that NASA had never thought of. They just never had the funding to really pursue it. And especially in the wasteful manner Elon musk has.

    • chitak166@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      What did spaceX do, exactly?

      We’ve had re-usable spacecraft rated for human passengers since the Space Shuttle.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Reentry vehicle sure. Launch vehicle, no. The ocean floor is littered with booster stage debris. NASA had experimented with a lot of different methods to reach orbit. And had even looked at things that SpaceX eventually built. But never had the funding to build themselves.

        SpaceX is nothing but the culmination of a Reagan era fascist fever, dream. Ofdismantling good governance. Privatizing everything possible and then price gouging.

        • chitak166@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I just saw SpaceX’s most recent rocket launch and it looked like they detached the boosters.

          I think they exploded afterwards, too.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Absolutely. But that’s only because Elon musk doesn’t mind throwing away money. He’s got so much of it. The rockets were supposed to stabilize themselves and land to be reused. He’s blown up more rockets than NASA so far. In much less time.

            • chitak166@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Oh yeah, I was just curious what spaceX did cause it doesn’t look like they accomplished anything we haven’t done before.

              Maybe if they successfully implement re-usable boosters, then they would have done something new.