Too bad he’s trying to leverage his position while the country is focused upon more important issues.
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I understand that there are going to be misgivings and I’m no fan of Elon but I’m not sure that right now we’re in any worse position than if we had contracted a design out to the lowest military industrial complex bidder. Certainly it’s better than hitching rides on the Soyuz.
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I guess I should clarify, I’m looking at it from the point of view of NASA’S political vulnerability having created a situation where innovation was stifled for over 30 years. The rigidity was solidified with the loss of Challenger: the Shuttle had to be kept going at all costs, “in their memory”.
The gears in the machine were stuck, and the development of launch systems by for-profit corporations has helped unstick the machine, a little. Theres a greater willingness to innovate and experiment now.
I would love for all this work to be done by a public agency. I’m not too keen on seeing private logistics everywhere, or a lunar lander with a Burger King logo on the side. But I’m happy that space exploration has taken a chance on trying something different.
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That was truly impressive and borderd on emotional watching it live with my daughter. What an achievement for the engineers, scientists, and Musk that set out to do such an insainly hard, dangerous, and risky thing that in the past only governments could accomplish.
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No valsalva device. What if your nose itches?
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At least they weren’t wearing red shirts.
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Red Shirt guys are all working on the Starship test fire.
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Red shirts?
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Guys, get with it. Red is for command now. Has been since the 2350s.
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For some reason, it was on Pence’s playlist 
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Trump is more a Mister Id type
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“We have to turn the cameras off before they doff their suits.” Damn, I was hoping to see the historic nose-scratching moment.
(Seriously, I do hope these exposed zippers don’t turn into an actual issue.)
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Why? Why shouldn’t space faring be an international effort? What can we possibly gain by letting private corps take charge?
Congress cut funding, because of the neo-liberal agenda.
But that’s where it’s going, I’m afraid. Neo-liberalism in space…
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Wow, they got to talk to Ted Cruz!
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What a coincidence! NASA selected two white, non-Hispanic, cisgender males for the first Commercial Crew launch! Could it be that all that talk about diversity is just window dressing?
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Strictly from a financial standpoint, launching crews through SpaceX is a lot cheaper than hitching a ride on a Soyuz, because Russia has been charging NASA out the ass for seats of late. They know they have NASA by the balls, so to speak, and they (or more likely, Putin) are not below using that leverage.
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It’s going to be expensive to go into space. It was acceptable when it was part of the cold war, it should be acceptable now. Farming it out to the cheapest provider is a recipe for disaster. The Russians have the means and the expertise already. The only reason we’re trying to reinvent that wheel (instead of building on it) is because Elon Musk wants to line his pockets.
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International cooperation is good in these types of endeavors but the relationship we have with Russia over the Soyuz is more akin to being paying customers with no other options, rather than being equal partners.
Also, given Russia’s behavior on the international stage, assassinating political critics and whatnot, it does seem prudent to have additional options other than sending their government our money in order to get folks to space.
To be honest I have a hard time seeing how NASA’s relationship with SpaceX is fundamentally different from the relationships they’ve had with countless other big government contractors since day 1. NASA never built these rockets on their own. Boeing, Lockheed, Morton Thiokol, and many others have played a huge role in the space program, and were definitely in it for the money.
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