OMG it's the SpaceX Party Thread!

[wolfpack]

Well, my SpaceX T-shirt from the KSC Gift Shop showed up as a "Youth" size M, and not an "Adult" size M. What does this mean vis-a-vis government spaceflight versus private spaceflight? 

Meanwhile, I'll send it back and await an exchange. Pics will follow. 

[Jim]

Well, my SpaceX T-shirt from the KSC Gift Shop showed up as a "Youth" size M, and not an "Adult" size M. What does this mean vis-a-vis government spaceflight versus private spaceflight? 

Nothing, since the KSC Gift shop is run by an independent commercial contractor.

[dcporter]

Nothing, since the KSC Gift shop is run by an independent commercial contractor.

Cost-plus or fixed-cost? =)

[Jim]

Nothing, since the KSC Gift shop is run by an independent commercial contractor.

Cost-plus or fixed-cost? =)

Fixed, at no cost to the gov't

[dcporter]

Fixed, at no cost to the gov't

Cool re: fixed (and I assumed, was just cracking wise) but does the government book any revenue from that shop? Seems like it oughtta get a cut of the merch.

[Robert Thompson]

"We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 2) - A New Perspective"

[Jim]

No,  all the profit (after the operator fee) goes back into the visitor center

[Alexsander]

What would happen is basically the end of commercial spaceflight. NASA would begin throwing up as many regulatory road blocks to continued missions as they possibly could come up with. There would be no commercial crew, or perhaps only one flight. The usual suspects would criticize commercial as being the problem and blame them for everything.

Not gonna happen. SpaceX would move to another country -- or even another celestial body -- if needed. Maybe the Moon is the REAL Galt's Gulch...

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

What would happen is basically the end of commercial spaceflight. NASA would begin throwing up as many regulatory road blocks to continued missions as they possibly could come up with. There would be no commercial crew, or perhaps only one flight. The usual suspects would criticize commercial as being the problem and blame them for everything.

Not gonna happen. SpaceX would move to another country -- or even another celestial body -- if needed. Maybe the Moon is the REAL Galt's Gulch...

The FAA is the regulating authority not NASA. NASA is only a customer of commercial. Political policies by a political party have its roots in the support for or against certain items by the significant donor to the political campaign funds of the parties or candidates. As far as I can tell there isn't any significant donor telling them to not do commercial but there are a bunch telling them to support commercial. So policy is to allow the FAA keep doing what it’s doing (no new policies) but the funding that NASA receives that it then spends on commercial is what is at stake. Those commercial entities solely dependent on NASA spending are the ones that are threatened. Those with other sources of income besides NASA and the DOD will survive, Virgin Galactic and even SpaceX to name two of the ones not totally dependent on government money.

[JohnFornaro]

What would happen is basically the end of commercial spaceflight. NASA would begin throwing up as many regulatory road blocks to continued missions as they possibly could come up with. There would be no commercial crew, or perhaps only one flight. The usual suspects would criticize commercial as being the problem and blame them for everything.

I don't quite see how you draw that conclusion.  I thought NASA was totally cooperative and helpful and all on the recent Dragon mission to ISS.  Why wouldn't that attitude continue into commercial crew?

[IRobot]

I don't quite see how you draw that conclusion.  I thought NASA was totally cooperative and helpful and all on the recent Dragon mission to ISS.  Why wouldn't that attitude continue into commercial crew?

The problem is not current NASA support. I think they are quite happy with SpaceX.

But this is not a perfect world and there are some big companies out there that don't like what SpaceX is doing and will do their best to put them out of business. It is hard to justify pork barrel projects when some other company is doing the same for a lot less.

[Lar]

What would happen is basically the end of commercial spaceflight. NASA would begin throwing up as many regulatory road blocks to continued missions as they possibly could come up with. There would be no commercial crew, or perhaps only one flight. The usual suspects would criticize commercial as being the problem and blame them for everything.

I don't quite see how you draw that conclusion.  I thought NASA was totally cooperative and helpful and all on the recent Dragon mission to ISS.  Why wouldn't that attitude continue into commercial crew?

I would think that NASA is not monolithic and there may be some folk thrilled and some folk not so much.

[Rocket Science]

Knock knock…

(SpaceX) Who’s there?

North Korea…

(SpaceX) North Korea who?

North Korea… Who wants to sell me a rocket… cheap?

[wolfpack]

But this is not a perfect world and there are some big companies out there that don't like what SpaceX is doing and will do their best to put them out of business. It is hard to justify pork barrel projects when some other company is doing the same for a lot less.

Most companies are kept quite busy with managing their own affairs. Plotting to put someone else out of business implies they've got their own houses in such wonderful order that they can spend the time and effort.

If SpaceX becomes a serious threat, they'll just get bought. One other reason to delay IPO until they can be assured of a valuation high enough to forestall that.

[yg1968]

But this is not a perfect world and there are some big companies out there that don't like what SpaceX is doing and will do their best to put them out of business. It is hard to justify pork barrel projects when some other company is doing the same for a lot less.

Most companies are kept quite busy with managing their own affairs. Plotting to put someone else out of business implies they've got their own houses in such wonderful order that they can spend the time and effort.

If SpaceX becomes a serious threat, they'll just get bought. One other reason to delay IPO until they can be assured of a valuation high enough to forestall that.

Even if there is an IPO, Musk might still retain a controling interest.

[jnc]

Even if there is an IPO, Musk might still retain a controling interest.

Given his long-term goals, he'd be well advised to do so...

Noel

[ArbitraryConstant]

Even if there is an IPO, Musk might still retain a controling interest.

He's specifically said:

-That is exactly what he's going to do.
-Anyone who invests is going to be well aware of the company's goals.

[JWag]

I just got word that SpaceX bought one of my company's pieces of capital equipment, and someone will need to go to Hawthorne to install it.

Guess who just volunteered?

[woods170]

I just got word that SpaceX bought one of my company's pieces of capital equipment, and someone will need to go to Hawthorne to install it.

Guess who just volunteered?

Well, if you actually get to go over there...then there is only one thing I can say: You lucky b****rd! 

[majormajor42]

douglas100

Re: SpaceX segment on 60 Minutes tonight, 3/18, at 7pm EDT « Reply #105 on: 05/07/2012 12:53 PM »

Quote from: corneliussulla on 04/29/2012 01:39 PM
...Musk will be the true Zephram Cochrane

...comparison with a fictitious character is just silly.

Been away a few days. Impressed to see the party thread still going.

Was just reading about black holes and the universes within them on nextbigfuture. At some point my eyes glazed over and I concluded that I don't currently have the ability to get my head completely around the Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory of gravity. But I know of someone who might...

It reminded me of the quotes above, where I was totally in agreement with Douglas100 when I first read them several weeks ago. But Elon did choose to study physics, as he reminds us in the 60 minutes piece, which was just replayed on Sunday in timely fashion (with nice new edits that included new videos of the C2+ mission). Certainly, and I'd be willing to bet, Elon has some ideas of his own of advanced propulsion technologies. Of course, it would be very wise of him at this point to keep those ideas tucked away.

He's only 40 and he may accomplish much in years to come but life may be too short indeed for even him to tickle any of his university dreams of things beyond chemical rockets or electric propulsion 1.0 .  I think I recall some wisps of things being discussed in other threads concerning these possibilities and Musk. Perhaps next time, when Elon brings up physics, Scott Pelley will take his questions in a different direction.