SpaceX to increase price of cargo delivery to space station by 50%

[DistantTemple]

Please stop this noise.  BFR-BFS has nothing to do with CRS-2 or any other ISS deliveries and associated pricing for the foreseeable future.  Put it in Semmel's fantasy thread.

I agree we perhaps got carried away, but Semmel's point about SX's intent to get prices down, being incompatible NASA's way of working is entirely relevant to the thread title. How the hell is SX putting up prices? And is it somehow due to working with NASA? Yes it obviously is. But I also think thats enough for this thread now.

[lonestriker]

[Bezos] did try to nobble SX by attempting to patient droneship landings though!

I suspect Bezos knew that such a patent would in all likelihood be declared invalid, but Blue Origin applied for one because either the courts would find that they had a valid patent or that there could be no such valid patent. The alternative is to risk someone else applying for such a patent, which if the court did uphold it might cause BO serious difficulties. In the event, SpaceX challenged it and the courts did rule that there could be no such valid patent (because of extensive prior art), leaving the option of droneship landings free for BO to pursue if it wanted to. Lots of patent applications are done for similar reasons.

No, they could’ve just publicly proposed droneship landings. Then no one could’ve patented it. Can’t patent something that has been publicly proposed by someone else.

My biggest beef with Bezos is that he wields bogus patents instead of innovation/competition as a way to get ahead of his competitors.  Back in the early days of Amazon, he got the now-infamous (and now-expired) "1-click" patent which drew the ire of most of the Internet.  If his end-goal really is to enable millions of people to work in space, he should be encouraging all innovations and companies that further that goal.  He already is the richest man in the world, so he doesn't need any more money to accomplish his goals.  It's clear that he wants to be the one leading mankind into space as his goal (i.e. the savior of mankind and the Earth.)  Musk may be a showman and have impossible schedules, but his actions are at least not anti-competitive.  I'm sure there's plenty of ego on Musk's side too, wanting to be the first to get humans to mars (or even back to the moon), but he's not going to try under-handed things to stop his competitors from getting there first.  So while I'll cheer BO and their accomplishments as a space geek, I would rather it be SX that leads the way.

Apologies for taking this thread even further off the rails...

[Comga]

SpaceX will price their services to maximize their profit and/or revenue. Novel, I know.

Ah!  So SpaceX is stealing NASA’s underpants!

Wow. This thread just goes on and on, round and round.
Not surprising tho
I wish we had a launch coming up to occupy our attention.

[Semmel]

Please stop this noise.  BFR-BFS has nothing to do with CRS-2 or any other ISS deliveries and associated pricing for the foreseeable future.  Put it in Semmel's fantasy thread.

I agree we perhaps got carried away, but Semmel's point about SX's intent to get prices down, being incompatible NASA's way of working is entirely relevant to the thread title. How the hell is SX putting up prices? And is it somehow due to working with NASA? Yes it obviously is. But I also think thats enough for this thread now.

BS.  Just a bunch of internet axe grinding and NASA bashing by the usual suspects.

Jim, nobody is bashing NASA. In fact, I love NASA for what they have done and are currently doing. There are only three agencies in the world that can do human space flight, NASA is one of them. They invented the current status quo. There is huge amount of respect for that. Since I can remember thinking about Spaceflight, there are humans in orbit around earth. And the new contract for commercial cargo and human supply to ISS is testament of that invention. The procedures, etc. have a good reason to be the way they are. I pointed out that the current pricing of Dragon 2 compared to Dragon 1 is evidence if not proof that NASAs approach to human space flight is incompatible with the future SpaceX and Blue Origin are striving for. This may mean that these futures are impossible to achieve and NASAs approach is the only viable way. It may also mean that other procedures and ways of space operation must be invented in order to achieve these futures.

But even if the second case is true. Then NASA has an important role as technology incubator. SpaceX would be dead without NASA. And without CCTCap, SpaceX would be far away from having a human rated spacecraft. Life support systems. Abort systems. Many more things. The experience they get with Dragon 2 and human spaceflight is already invaluable to them and even more so once they start flying. This is all thanks to NASA. Please dont interpret any statement towards the effect that things have to change as NASA bashing. Its not.