What is going on guys?

    • stevecrox@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      SpaceX have funded it privately. It apparently started operating at a profit this year.

    • jayrhacker@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      SpaceX is privately funded, NASA buys launches for it’s own purposes, but StarLink isn’t subsidized

        • CobraChicken@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Whoever is funding NASA should devote more funding to education - the need is clearly evident from your comments.

            • CobraChicken@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Alright, you dumbass, I will entertain.

              SpaceX sells a service that NASA buys. It’s cheaper and easier for NASA to contract out space launches & the R&D associated with it to other companies. It’s common for other government agencies to contract out to private companies for goods and services. SpaceX isn’t the only space company that receives contracts from NASA either. NASA is always looking to hedge their bet to not be too dependent on a single company.

              Like any other company, SpaceX uses the profit from their business + investors to fund new ventures like Starlink. No matter what you think of Musk, Starlink has had a positive impact for a lot of people in rural areas. Starlink is faster, more reliable and costs less than traditional satellite internet. Even if this cost tax dollars, it would be dollars well spent as we’re connecting more of the country to high speed internet. This has direct social, educational and economical impact.

              If you want NASA to stop hiring SpaceX for launches then it’ll hurt NASA too. They will have to spend a lot more money to R&D, test, build and maintain a new rocket program.

              • theanon@lemmy.worldOP
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                1 year ago

                No one wants a rocket program. People are starving. $2,000,000,000 to Elon this past year.

                • CobraChicken@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago
                  No one wants a rocket program.
                  

                  This is why I mentioned the importance of funding education earlier. You have tunnel vision because you either didn’t attend school, didn’t pay attention while there or simply had a very poor curriculum.

                  Feeding the starving and doing everything else aren’t mutually exclusive. The reason why we aren’t feeding the hungry is not because we are launching rockets into space.

                  Space programs and NASA has contributed a lot of technologies that we use in our everyday life. It made our lives easier, safer and has opened up more economic opportunities. If you are generating more money, more jobs, more services then it’s easier to have extra money for social services.

                  $2,000,000,000 to Elon this past year
                  

                  At this point it feels like you have comprehension issues, because me and several other people have already explained to you in detail that NASA isn’t donating money to Elon.

                  • theanon@lemmy.worldOP
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                    1 year ago

                    Feeding the starving is mutually exclusive especially when you can subsidize farmers. Farmers make a terrible wage it wouldn’t even be expensive to pay them off for free grain, cattle etc…

                    NASA is giving money to elon whether it is donated or not. He provides no service worth the cost. 600,000 people have internet versus the entire United States having free grain and hamburgers. For instance, data shows uber paid contractors $15,000,000,000 last year. Assuming food spend is about 10% of your monthly budget Elon would be able to cover the entire food bill of every Uber employee. If you scale that up to his entire company you most likely could pay off the entire industry on a yearly basis.

                • sknowmads@dormi.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  2B to SpaceX, the most advanced rocket company on the planet fully run by Americans since they deal with DoD. Access to space is not a bad thing.

                  Agree people are starving. We’re a country at peace spending >700B on the military industrial complex. Try shaving that down.

                  • theanon@lemmy.worldOP
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                    1 year ago

                    Elon is in the military industrial complex. Yes, we need to defund the military industrial complex no one is disagreeing with you.

                • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  People starving has absolutely zero to do with NASA’s budget. We are more than equipped to end world hunger, there’s just no profit in it. In the US, 30-40% of food is simply wasted. That’d be a good start to look at.