this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
60 points (76.8% liked)

Technology

4106 readers
251 users here now

Which posts fit here?

Anything that is at least tangentially connected to the technology, social media platforms, informational technologies and tech policy.


Post guidelines

[Opinion] prefixOpinion (op-ed) articles must use [Opinion] prefix before the title.


Rules

1. English onlyTitle and associated content has to be in English.
2. Use original linkPost URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
3. Respectful communicationAll communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. InclusivityEveryone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacksAny kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangentsStay on topic. Keep it relevant.
7. Instance rules may applyIf something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.


Companion communities

!globalnews@lemmy.zip
!interestingshare@lemmy.zip


Icon attribution | Banner attribution


If someone is interested in moderating this community, message @brikox@lemmy.zip.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Infinite@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago

The author wants the capabilities of SpaceX "brought into the sphere of democracy." That sounds less like nationalisation and more like selling it to a functioning government. I wouldn't trust Trump or his cronies to run things any more than I would Elon. Fortunately, Gwynne Shotwell is the functioning adult running the company and (mostly) managing Elon's interference.

Also

Any story about SpaceX as a font of private innovation because it’s free from state interference would be hard to square with the economic reality of the many billions it’s reaped from its numerous contracts, some public and some classified, with NASA and the Department of Defense. Without that, SpaceX in anything like its current form would be unthinkable.

Without "that" - meaning contracts to deliver services. Should they have not taken any government jobs? Does "build a new vehicle to deliver people to ISS" or "deliver satellites to orbit" count as state interference? This paragraph is idiocy. As far as I know, the only government money granted to SpaceX was ~25M from Texas to lure Starbase and Starlink production. Everything else was a contract or other performance-based funding.

SpaceX - with reusability - has undeniably changed the space industry on a global scale, and the decrease in $/kg to orbit is the main factor in our ability to access space and the solar system. The cost hadn't gotten meaningfully under $5,000/kg ever, with the Shuttle at $65k/kg, until Falcon 9 brought it to ~2500 and Heavy down to 1500. Starship (which has been performing successful tests with some explosive secondary goals) should get it to $200/kg. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cost-space-launches-low-earth-orbit

Fuck Trump. Fuck Musk and his drug-fueled slide into shitbaggery. Let SpaceX cook.