• MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    2 天前

    I disagree.

    1. You already have a government space agency. Maybe give them more funding so they don’t have to rely on space-x to get their stuff into orbit?

    2. There’s a national telecom network already in place. It at least has the potential to be faster and more reliable, if it isn’t already… At least compared to low earth orbit satellite coverage.

    There’s no good reason to continue providing Elon or his companies with any government handouts. Pull that funding and give it to… I dunno, students who have more debt than homeowners with a mortgage… NASA… Literally anything that helps people?

  • hexonxonx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 天前

    Starlink should be globalized. A planet only needs one low-altitude orbiting communications network. Better to standardize the technology and platform and let them contribute to one system than to have a dozen identical competing systems crashing into each other and fucking things up for everyone.

  • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    2 天前

    No, we should regain control of our nation from fascists (this does not mean just replace the President), then nationalize SpaceX and Starlink, and make telecoms public utilities.

  • Knightfox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    2 天前

    A lot of people are calling this a bailout for Elon, but in reality it would be a seizure. Elon doesn’t want to let go of Starlink and the US likely wouldn’t pay him what it’s worth to take it over.

    What people seem to be missing is the precedent this would set. It’s all well and good when we empower the office of the president to seize a private company we don’t like, but after we give them that power what’s to stop them from seizing other businesses?

    XYZ company refuses to get rid of their DEI policy because the shareholders voted to keep it? Well now the orange man can seize it.

    Let’s not forget that previously it took 2/3rd majority to confirm presidential appointments, but the Senate under Obama decided to change that rule to 50% to get past Republican objections. The result of this is all these shit appointments Trump has passed with 51% of the Senate, none of them would have gotten by if the Democrats hadn’t made a precedent for changing the rules.

  • TheBannedLemming@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 天前

    I am not saying that I don’t agree with you. But this country is still not even close to considering nationalizing its own telecommunication infrastructure. Much less a privately held space company and a service of communication satellites. A large chunk of America believes that a for-profit business model for every good and service possible in life is the best course of action.

  • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    3 天前

    Arrest Musk on violation of controlled substances acts, file immigration violation charges, invalidate his ownership shares due to securities fraud, as he falsified education and naturalization forms.

    Or just emminent domain the shit. The Law is just made up right now.

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    103
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    3 天前

    Has anyone considered funding NASA?

    They made rockets that didn’t explode with duct tape and a TI-83 calculator.

    • Uruanna@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      35
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 天前

      Shouldn’t be incompatible with nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink. Just give it all to NASA, actually.

    • Rose56@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 天前

      They didn’t, because someone got paid to write this article!

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 天前

        Looks like we found someone who believed it was financially necessary for the manufacture of the shuttle to be spread across the country.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 天前

      What “they made” 50 years ago is of little value now. Expertise matters, and it’s lost with time passing.

      Still - yes. Nationalization is a bad solution because it gives the state power to nationalize. Seems a truism.

      Just let NASA work in its normal role. Instead of replacing that with SpaceX contracts.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 天前

      If that was actually their expenditure I don’t think they’d have their budget cut.

  • theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    304
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    4 天前

    Yeah I mean the tax payers have literally already paid for all of both SpaceX and Starlink. The public paid for it, the public should own it.

    • bulwark@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      97
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 天前

      They’re just following in the footsteps of Comcast. The FCC gave SpaceX/Starlink $885.5 million to provide rural broadband after they gave Comcast over $1 billion less than 5 years ago to do the same thing. Starlink actually works out there from what I understand, so I guess that’s something.

      • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        114
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        4 天前

        The main problem is that starlink is not a viable ISP like Comcast. Relying on low earth orbit is extremely wasteful as you need to constantly launch more and more satellites. Starlink gives their satellites a 5 year lifespan where fiber can go on for 40 years or more. There are 7,500 starlink satellites, so we’re talking a constant replacement of satellites all falling into earth’s atmosphere, not being recycled.

        Starlink is literal space trash waiting to happen.

        • bulwark@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          66
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 天前

          I didn’t realize how temporary and disposable Starlink’s satellites were. They incinerate 4 or 5 a day by de-orbiting them into the ozone. Here’s a pretty good CNET article that talks about how they “dispose” of them. IDK, doesn’t seem sustainable. They also mention the bandwidth gains are being diminished with the influx of new users, so their solution is more temporary satellites.

          • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            3 天前

            Yeah, if they want to make satellites last longer, they could go a bit higher in their orbits. The option is there.

            • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              15
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              3 天前

              But they specifically don’t want to do that because ensuring a 5 year service life means you are required to continue buying more satellites from them every 5 years. Literally burning resources into nothingness just to pursue a predatory subscription model.

              It also helps their case that LEO has much lower latency than mid or high orbit but I refuse to believe that that is their primary driving concern behind this and not the former.

              • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 天前

                LEO does offer legitimate advantages not just to latency but also for minimizing the abandoned space junk left in orbit. The satellites will deorbit fairly quickly after running out of fuel.

                Though I’m sure you’re correct about the main reason for the choice.

              • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                3 天前

                Who’s buying satellites?

                SpaceX is putting up satellites for SpaceX, they’re the manufacturer and operator…

                It’s definitely in their best interest to keep them working as long as possible.

                That said, they’re high end communications devices, very fancy routers essentially. And like all computer technology, these things become obsolete quickly. So even if they could last 20 years, you wouldn’t want them even 10 years from now. 100 GB/s speeds might be great now, but 10 years down the road 10 TB/s could be the norm, so at that point why are you still trying to provide service with ancient hardware 100x slower than it should be.

                • gaael@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  3 天前

                  Isn’t that part of the grift?

                  At the time it looked like one of the main reasons to launch Starlink was to provide SpaceX with a new market, much larger than the usual space launching stuff. Also this meant Felon could get subsidies through 2 different companies.

            • Venator@lemmy.nz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              3 天前

              That would also make latency worse and the signal weaker.

              Would the small ground starlink dish be able to reach higher orbits? I guess if the satellite is going to stay up longer you could afford to make it’s antennas a bit bigger to mitigate that.

              • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                3 天前

                Well you wouldn’t want to put them much higher, but if you raised their orbit by say 40%, they’d be getting significantly less atmospheric drag. It could probably extend their life by 15 years. And yeah, they’ll be 40% further away, so slightly more latency. Perhaps going from 70 ms ping to 100 ms ping. Not awesome, but definitely not a huge problem.

        • Thorry84@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          30
          ·
          4 天前

          You are right in how wasteful it is, especially since it turned out a lot of those satellites don’t even make it to 4 years.

          However there is zero risk of space trash with Starlink. They orbit so low, it’s basically within the atmosphere still. They need to constantly boost themselves, otherwise they fall down and burn up. So these satellites are coming down within years all on their own, even without any controlled disposal.

          It’s insanely wasteful, but it keeps SpaceX in business launching every week, which is kind of the point. But at least there isn’t a Kessler syndrome waiting to happen.

            • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              3 天前

              It’s not enough, but I would bet it might have a cooling effect as it reflects more light in the upper atmosphere.

              But we should really still make sure, and more importantly not trust Elon with any data flowing over those satellites.

              • trailee@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                3 天前

                It might! But the article I linked also suggests it might destroy ozone and have a net warming effect. We just don’t know. The upper atmosphere has never before had this level of direct pollution injection.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          4 天前

          Starlink provides service to areas where fiber is impossible. Like the middle of the ocean and actual rural areas where fiber runs could be tens of miles or more between homes. Those are area where no one will build out fiber unless the homeowner is paying for it themselves, the various government programs would never cover those actual rural areas despite what they claim. At best they might cover city outskirts for new infrastructure, where fiber nodes are already relatively close by. They’re never adding fiber to existing rural farms and ranches.

          They are not a 1:1 service comparison. You would need to compare It to other satellite providers, and there isn’t a comparison because all of those are dogshit in comparison to Starlink.

          There’s a reason it’s as popular as it is so quickly despite satellite internet in general not being new. The low earth satellite constellation means a massive difference in capability compared to conventional geostationary satellites. Multiple second latency, slow downloads nowhere near advertised double digit Mbps speeds, single digit Mbps upload speeds and often monthly data limits as low as 50GB per month are what the conventional satellite providers offer.

          • burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            20
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            4 天前

            i dont feel the cost and waste of all the rocket launches and debris justifies remote areas having satellite Internet

              • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                4
                ·
                3 天前

                This is a really weird “ends always justify the means” because I could also say it wouldn’t be necessary if Ukraine never gave up their nuclear weapons and how I doubt the Ukrainians would disagree. This is also further impacted by the protection of Starlink by the US military because if it wasn’t an act of war against the US to destroy them, Russia could take down low earth orbit satellites pretty easily.

                But none of this is relevant to how Starlink is not an ISP, it is not infrastructure it is a fleeting wasteful service.

                • CybranM@feddit.nu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  3 天前

                  From what I understand the Ukrainians never had control of the nukes, they didn’t actually have the launch codes to use them.

                  Regardless, having global access to the internet is great. Ask the people living in remote areas of the Amazon, no chance for them to get fiber, or Africa, or remote islands, or ships/airplanes.

                  If youre speaking of rural America not needing starlink because fiber is a thing, then you should broaden your horizons

            • LumpyPancakes@piefed.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              5
              ·
              4 天前

              I think if you consider the cost to manufacture then bury a fibre optic cable for everyone who lives 10km from a town centre, I think it’s still a net positive. It’s not great for sure, but amortised over a huge population it’s probably the best option we have at this time.

              • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                11
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                3 天前

                Only short term, long term the repeated rocket launches can’t win out over a ditch digger.

                • CybranM@feddit.nu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  3 天前

                  I’m sure digging fiber out in the Amazon rainforest will turn out great

          • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            4 天前

            Those places can get internet from satellites outside of low earth orbit that is simply slower with higher latency.

        • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 天前

          I’m not sure what isn’t viable about it, I mean it’s demonstrably viable, it’s working now.

      • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 天前

        Works is a strong word. It’s a better choice than dialup or Hughesnet, but that’s damning with extremely faint praise. If you need to rely on it you might be in trouble. There are still gaps in the coverage where you will be dropped for a while.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        3 天前

        The FCC revoked that award before the money was handed over because starlink wasn’t meeting the speeds they needed to meet for the deadline 3 years in the future and they didn’t think they would make it. The speeds that money was supposed to help them achieve launching the satellites required to meet it.

        No one else had that made up requirement put on them in advance.

        The goal that was 3 years in the future, which would have been around now or early 2026, required them to meet their speed (100d + 20u) and latency (<100ms) goals for 40% of the 650k rural users.

        They had 1.5 million US customers at the start of 2025, not sure how many are part of this rural 650k but id imagine the majority are, and only 260k of the rural ones have to meet the requirements.

        Ookla did a post about starlink in Maine where it shows many of the users are meeting those requirements

        https://www.ookla.com/articles/above-maine-starlink-twinkles

        Median DL: 116.77 (over the required 100)

        Media UL: 18.17 (just shy of the required 20)

        90th Percentile DL: 250.96

        90th Percentile UL 27.17

        If Maine is a representative example, then they are probably meeting their 40% target of 260k rural users despite not getting the money which would have accelerated things and made launches more focused on meeting the goals.

        Edit: extra details.

        Edit: I was just looking up more info on the program, and the deadline to report would have been in January 2025, so it would have been with the 1.5 million users they had at the start of the year, not around now, or 2026 as I’d said. That Ookla report was December 2024. We should get a report from the FCC (this summer?) that outlines how many others met their respective 40% target.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    143
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 天前

    You could always just fund the space agency you already have, instead of funneling money to a foreign billionaire.

    • TronBronson@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      73
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      4 天前

      No this the one time I’m with the commies. Nationalize that shit. Like you said it’s all taxpayer money anyway. A little bit of Wall Street speculation, but who gives a fuck about those people

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        3 天前

        all taxpayer money anyway

        Yes but with very little to show for it. If the government just treated all undelivered orders as debt, it would end up deep in the red.

      • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 天前

        this the one time I’m with the commies

        Are you against universal and free healthcare, education and retirement? Are you against improving worker rights, paid holidays, sick leave, guaranteed housing and guaranteed employment? Are you against unionisation of workplaces and collective worker decisions mattering in business? Are you against heavy regulation against climate change and pollution of the environment? Are you against anti-racism, feminism, anti-fascism and the redistribution of wealth from the richest to the poorest? I’m sure you have a lot more common ground with us commies than you think

        • TronBronson@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 天前

          No I’m also with the commies on single payer health care and super high tax brackets for the rich. I do hate me a fascism, infact I hate all authoritarians.

          I’m clearly for the workers rights we have fought for and established in this country. And while I can acknowledge the communist impact in these achievements, I would not go ahead and give you guys full credit nor say that these are policies that are specific to you. Most of this stuff is just center/left social welfare and human rights. Commies are the ones that like to do purity tests and isolate anyone that doesn’t agree with 100% of your policy points.

          Pretty big jumps from liberal to leftist to self proclaimed communist ideas on how these ideas and policies look, so yes we agree on general principles and concepts. But we certainly don’t agree on how to bring them about.

          Also, every single self-proclaimed communist is on the suspect list because you guys did a lot of campaigning against Joe Biden to help Donald Trump get elected so I’m just saying I don’t really fuck with you guys anymore. That’s my new purity test. Did you support Joe Biden and Kamala during the most important election in American history?

          • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 天前

            super high tax brackets for the rich

            I’m a communist and I believe in the expropriation of their capital to eliminate super-richness, not in their taxation.

            workers rights we have fought for and established in this country

            Your country (the US judging by the comment) has miserable worker rights, as a western-European. Worker rights are bad here, but the US takes the cake.

            I would not go ahead and give you guys full credit nor say that these are policies that are specific to you. Most of this stuff is just center/left social welfare and human rights

            I’m not so sure. The legal abolition of homelessness and unemployment is far from being a centre/left welfare measure, as evidenced by the fact that the only countries that have achieved this are communist ones such as Cuba or the Soviet Union.

            we certainly don’t agree on how to bring them about

            We don’t agree on how to bring them about because the liberal method of bringing them about is proven ineffective in every single instance of liberal democracy. Worker rights and welfare are systematically being eroded in essentially all liberal democracies for the past 3-4 decades, home ownership rates decrease, unemployment increases, retirement age gets delayed (Denmark just rose it to 70 years e.g.), education and healthcare budgets get gutted, infrastructure crumbles, real wages diminish for the majority of the population, and little action is taken against climate change. There were only advancements in worker rights in Europe (and less so in the USA) because of the fear of communist revolution in the past century, hence the complete lack of progress and actual degradation of rights and democracy with the rise of the far right all over the Western World.

            I’m not USian so I didn’t support any of your genocidal candidates. Funny how you talked of purity tests earlier in your comment and come up with that later. But as an outsider: the US liberal obsession with blaming the election loss on the progressives and not on, you know, the politicians enacting genocide and not doing anything about improving the living conditions of people in the US while in government seems pretty weird. If the Democrats can’t bring themselves to even remotely appear more appealing than LITERAL DONALD TRUMP to the average voter, what the fuck are they doing?

          • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            3 天前

            Most of those things I mentioned are/were a material reality in socialist countries such as Cuba or the Soviet Union, except for climate change and pollution and some things regarding feminism and homosexuality due to moral shortcomings of 20th century thought.

              • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                3 天前

                Yes, I’m a tankie, you got me. How about you address the actual argument though? In the 1970s Soviet Union there was:

                Guaranteed employment, free education to the highest level, free healthcare for everyone, guaranteed housing for everyone and the abolition of homelessness, 45h working week, retirement with guaranteed pension at 61 for men and at 55 for women, paid holiday and sick leave, highest unionisation population in the world, more female engineers inside the Soviet Union than in the rest of the world combined, lowest level of wealth inequality in the history of the region, subsidised and affordable basics like energy access or public transit… The list goes on and on.

                How about you try to refute any of these individual claims I made instead of dismissing the actual historical reality just because you dislike my political views? Spoiler alert: you won’t find reliable sources contradicting any of my claims and I can provide sources to all of it because I actually know what I’m talking about.

      • Omega@discuss.online
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 天前

        it’ll be sold to the highest bidder is my bet

        I would find it funny that billionaires would pass off the opportunity of taking musk’s position on a discount

      • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        24
        ·
        4 天前

        NASA was always there and they couldn’t achieve what SpaceX has while simultaneously having a lot more capital to do so. I’m sorry but if there’s any proof that private sector’s self interest is a better driver of innovation than common interest SpaceX is it. This is a terrible idea that sounds like a good idea if you do not understand how good Musk was and is at cutting costs. That’s his actual real skill in business and is well documented. Doesn’t make him less of a prick but you also cannot downplay what he has achieved with this company.

        • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          30
          ·
          4 天前

          The agency that landed people on the moon so long ago most of the people involved have died if old age, and the event will soon pass out of living memory?

          The one where when they let a single rocket explode, one time, rocked the nation, because their record was so close to flawless?

          The one that constantly gives us new sources for scientific data?

          Yeah fuck them. They never made a dick rocket.

          • cole@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            3 天前

            I’m sorry… dick rocket? Your issue with SpaceX is that the rockets are… rocket shaped?

            Like everything else notwithstanding, physics dictates the shapes of these things. That is why they all look rather… dick-ish

          • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            3 天前

            let’s not forget the agency that launched the probe that passed the edge of the solar system and is still functional and doing valuable things…… in the 70s

              • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 天前

                which part? it’s still transmitting right? and they got useful and interesting data from it only a few years ago

                • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 天前

                  No, honey, it’s 2025.

                  I don’t know what happened to you, but im so fucking sorry.

                  Edit: you can down vote me all you want. It doesn’t change the truth. Odds are everyone you knew is dead.

        • Senal@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          25
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 天前

          You mean the NASA who landed people on the moon?

          So let’s assume you aren’t a moon landing denier and use that as a baseline, NASA is clearly capable of things given the right circumstances and budget.

          SpaceX benefited from his reputation and money, because they sure as shit didn’t benefit from his technical acumen.

          Business wise he is successful because he’s rich and influential and that works to mitigate how shitty he is at actually running an organisation, that doesn’t mean he has skills as a business person that means he has money and influence, in his case originally from the mine, then from buying and bullying his was in to businesses that were technologically sound and boosting them with his money.

          You could make an argument he’s a relatively good investor, but he’s an actively bad CEO.

          • khannie@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            3 天前

            NASA is clearly capable of things given the right circumstances and budget.

            Absolutely agree with this but there is no denying the innovation levels at spacex are higher (I’m not saying this is down to musk specifically. The man is a horror story of a human).

            We were all in total awe when seeing booster stages land themselves successfully for the first time. It was such a giant leap forward and to the best of my knowledge no government funded space agency was even considering it before spacex.

            • Senal@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              3 天前

              Absolutely agree with this but there is no denying the innovation levels at spacex are higher

              Undeniably, they’ve been doing amazing work (at least from my rocketry technology peasant point of view).

            • tyler@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              3 天前

              SpaceX has an internal team that works to make sure Musk can’t interfere with anything, because he’s so bad at managing businesses. Gwynne Shotwell is the one in charge of SpaceX.

              • khannie@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 天前

                I am not surprised in the slightest. I mean if you have a bunch of smart, highly motivated people it sounds like keeping the crazy man at arms length is the kind of thing they’d organise very effectively.

          • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            18
            ·
            edit-2
            4 天前

            They landed people on the moon and then did fuck all for decades.

            When Musk started SpaceX he was not well known yet, SpaceX came before Tesla.

            He was able to get into the businesses he has because he was rich yes, but you can find many accounts of engineers that worked under him speak of how good he was at finding ways to cut unnecessary costs.

            He’s not a technical genius that’s for sure. But he has been a good CEO for SpaceX. Terrible one for Tesla though, mostly because he bought into his own myth and became a drug addict. But I refuse to simply wave away his achievements simply because I don’t like him. I can not like someone and still acknowledge they have done something good.

            • Senal@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              edit-2
              3 天前

              They landed people on the moon and then did fuck all for decades.

              Indeed, all i was saying is that they were capable given budget and circumstances.

              That budget and direction comes from the government.

              When Musk started SpaceX he was not well known yet, SpaceX came before Tesla.

              I will admit, i thought spacex was just another company he bought his way in to, like tesla, seems i was mistaken about that.

              He was able to get into the businesses he has because he was rich yes, but you can find many accounts of engineers that worked under him speak of how good he was at finding ways to cut unnecessary costs.

              And you can equally find many accounts of having to distract him from the day to day operations because he’s unreliable , unpredictable and chaotic (none of those meant in a good way).

              He’s also known for buying good press and using litigation to silence people.

              He’s not a technical genius that’s for sure. But he has been a good CEO for SpaceX.

              I doubt this, but that could just be bias, i don’t have any actual evidence of the long term impact of him as CEO.

              Recently though, he’s provably been significantly more of a liability than a benefit, even if just from a PR and public sentiment point of view.

              But I refuse to simply wave away his achievements simply because I don’t like him. I can not like someone and still acknowledge they have done something good.

              Indeed, i push back on the myth that he’s some self made tony stark genius, but it isn’t like he’s not achieved anything.

              I would personally attribute most of that to neptoism, wealth, luck and opportunity, but that doesn’t remove the achievement itself.

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      3 天前

      This is the thing, NASA is underfunded as it is, if we nationalized SpaceX, we wouldn’t actually continue to fund it appropriately and it would simply die. Actually, with trump at the helm, nationalizing it would mean Trump immediately liquidating it. SpaceX is definitely the most successful rocket company in the US. It would be an awful shame for the space industry and for humanity’s future in space.

      I hate musk as much as the next guy, but I think the success of spaceX is undeniable. Their success with reusable rockets is not just impressive, it’s ground breaking and important. Developing a fully reusable rocket is probably the most important challenge humans are working on in this era, and I only know of three companies attempting to do it. I don’t want to kill the company that’s furthest along.

      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        3 天前

        You guys are so stuck in the cult of personality. WE PAID FOR EVERYTHING SPACEX DID. IT BELONGS TO US.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          3 天前

          Not to mention that Musk himself contributed nothing to SpaceX’s technical achievements. All he did was insist that the audio of their launches and recoveries include employees cheering maniacally - easily the most annoying aspect of SpaceX.

          • cole@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 天前

            I’m sorry… you don’t think employees who are achieving world firsts are allowed to celebrate?

            You must be fun at parties

        • Marand@feddit.dk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          3 天前

          You paid for services rendered. By your logic you should eventually own your neighborhood grocery store because that’s where you buy your bread.

          • tyler@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            3 天前

            You’re talking to someone on lemmy, there’s a very high likelihood they think exactly that.

        • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          3 天前

          Us? Do you own NASA? Do you have any say on how funds are assigned to NASA? No? Then it doesn’t belong to “Us” it belongs to the government, a distinct organization with different goals and motivations than “Us” the people.

        • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          3 天前

          Let’s say I bought you a car, I paid for it in full and then gave it to you, and in return you sometimes drive me around.

          Let’s say I get tired of this arrangement, should I repossess the car just to drive it into the ocean? What would be the point of that? Sure, it’s rightfully mine, but what good does it do to destroy it?

          “IT BELONGS TO US” is not a very compelling argument for arbitrary distribution.

      • KumaSudosa@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        3 天前

        Of course he was always a jerk, but I still think of a reality where Elon never went (officially) Nazi and just stuck with his otherwise important companies. Tesla being an important early mover in EVs, especially in such an oil-dependent country, and all the cool stuff SpaceX has been up to.