• aramis87@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    I fully expect Musk to target NASA so he can try to slide SpaceX into it’s place.

    • NegativeNull@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      He’ll go after the Department of Transportation and the FAA first. NASA at least gives lots of money to SpaceX.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      NASA is already utterly reliant on SpaceX, SX gets bigger contracts, less regulation, and more freedom for non-US partnerships as a private contracter than they would as an official arm of the US government. They have absolutely nothing to gain by having Musk target NASA.

      • very_well_lost@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I think Musk will go after SLS, the only in-house launch platform NASA has left.

        Once that’s been axed, NASA will have no choice but to rely on SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle for it’s prestige missions, include the Artemis Program which is supposed to put Americans back on the moon and establish some permanent infrastructure in lunar orbit before the end of the decade. Those contracts probably won’t be as lucrative as routine satellite launches and whatnot, but that doesn’t mean Musk won’t try to hoard them — if nothing else, landing people on the Moon will still spike his stock price.

        • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          You might be correct there, though I don’t know if he needs to do much about SLS. It’s a 1970s rocket that’s already blown through multiple budgetary lines. It’s like investing in a car design from the 1970s but paying inflated 2070s prices for it. He might not do much to help it, but SLS has long been turning into an embarrassment for NASA – it’s been mismanaged, huge budgetary overruns, and constant delays.

          Ironically, the goal is to eventually turn over SLS production and launch operations to a private venture anyway. After SX got more involved with NASA operations, the bloated and inferior SLS program looks even worse. Maybe he tries to have that private venture deal be SpaceX contract instead of Northrup Grumman and Boeing, but that returns us to the “why?” question.

          By the time NASA is ready to hand it off to private hands, it’s going up be so far behind where SX is at that I doubt they’d want to touch that program with a ten-foot pole. If he’s going to do anything, he’ll probably just try to have SX be the primary contractor for that mission rather than SLS under the guise of efficiency, superior technology, and cost savings. And he’ll be right.

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Good thing we don’t have a corrupt SCOTUS that will say the constitution is whatever Repiblicans want it to be.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      4 days ago

      Yeah, in a functional democracy he would be disqualified from running after Jan 6th. But of course, the US isn’t one of them.