The American taxpayer has paid to enrich Elon Musk, an oligarch poisoning our political discourse—and we’re still subsidizing him. It’s time to stop.
@JamesGleick Still, wish someone else was building a reusable launch system. You know we were paying 80M a seat for rides on Soyuz rockets, right? I don't want to pay Musk. I want to pay Russia even less.
@JamesGleick Agreed. Though of course we contracted with several hundred private companies to do it, we remained fully in charge.
@JamesGleick (Arguably that's one of the reasons NASA is as competent as it is. Developing, coordinating and integrating a distributed project on that scale, for those stakes, requires an incredible process.)
@pieist @JamesGleick Yes as long as Congress doesn't meddle. See SLS (sometimes nicknamed the Senate Launch System).....😩
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/a-new-report-finds-boeings-rockets-are-built-with-an-unqualified-work-force/
@JamesGleick @pieist
It's also how we get a bunch of space junk falling out of the sky.
@JamesGleick @pieist AND internet!! America requires broadband internet for children to go to school, for medical appointments, for communication with essential services, etc. We just moved to a rural mountain town JUST outside of Los Angeles County & for my disabled family to access any of those things, Starlink was our only option. 🤦♀️ That’s really bad.
@JamesGleick @pieist I agree. I really really despise the Muskrat. Unfortunately we REALLY, REALLY need an alternative to SpaceX. Unfortunately Boeing, SLS, and Artemis show the worst about cost plus contacts. They and ULA need a serious kick in the pants!
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/a-new-report-finds-boeings-rockets-are-built-with-an-unqualified-work-force/
@pieist The government should run its own space program. We got to the moon that way.
Turning space travel over to profit-making private companies is how we build oligarchs.