All the tech bros were constantly looking down on ESA, Arianespace and Ariane 6. Demanding that this perfectly good but slightly more costly platform should be thrown away and that Europe should make itself completely dependent on SpaceX+Russia instead. ESA and EU did not. Surely SpaceX would have gladly launched Iris2, the sovereign strategic alternative to Starlink. Right? Right?!
So what I’m seeing here is an interesting situation. The main thing that seems to be an issue is that they’re ramping down the falcon 9 before people were really ready for that. That leaves all the people who were expecting that launch service to continue (Including NASA), stuck at the moment, possibly without a viable alternative. Luckily, while they may not be taking new contracts now, the article says they are still fulfilling the ones they have, so that’s good.
So yes, leaving people without a launch provider sucks for sure. But the fact that they’re shutting down falcon also demonstrates that SpaceX is expecting to be able to offer starship launches very soon. Remember, if they can’t put anything into space, they don’t really have a business at all. So this really does suggest that at least they think starship can totally replace falcon and that it’s almost ready.
Isn’t commercial space ventures great? They can set launches to “out of service” delaying or cancelling research and/or ISS/LEO resupply.
SpaceX and Starlink should have to be broken up. xAI’s purchase by SpaceX never should have been allowed. The contracts for NASA should have always required ownership of the investments made and the amount of rented tech never should have been allowed critical mass. Starlink should have been allowed a monopolistic ownership of its spots in space and should have been for forced to create an open interoperability standard from the jump.
The fact that “SI” is how SpaceX is talking about those AI projects shows they are very much still a government contractor even in this phase, just looking at different pots of money. Contracts that Musk’s massive ties to corruption should be viewed as last resort, at least until they cut him out of the company (while he is charged and tried for his corruption).
In the long run that makes sense. In the short term, they’re linked. SpaceX doesn’t have contracts to fill every launch, so they fill in the extra space with Starlilnk launches. Starlink doesn’t exist without SpaceX.
Starlink needing a subsidy for launches is only because they are operating as a monopoly. Competitors get flights just fine without it
Imprison Musk for treason and nationalize spaceX
That sounds very communist. US doesn’t nationalize companies. US wages war against countries known for doing that (right now it’s Iran).
And yet, the govt owns 10% of Intel stocks.
nationalize as in purchase? or steal?
when countries nationalize a company they actually purchase it.
so you want the government to pay Elon literal trillions, for what exactly?
prioritize health care, housing and reducing inflation, ignore shitty people in orbit for now.
What an interesting twist of logic. SpaceX is three companies in a trenchcoat and laughably overvalued. Even by their own hilariously optimistic IPO documentation, the rocketry company represented a very small portion of the overall value. So sure, pay for the rocketry part. Now let’s see how Starlink fares (literally) without a build-in government floated launch platform. It’s okay though, because xAI will be worth $22,000,000,000,000 any day now.
Pay him? Fucking imprison him for his DOGE crimes alone, then seize his assets and utilize them for the national good.
And Elon is more like an Edison than a Tesla so there will be no inter-agency co-operation for sure.
nationalize the everlasting fuck out of this company.
We had and have a national space agency. A private company has surpassed them and is now offering launches 90% cheaper than NASA. It’s cost overruns are also 97% less. If NASA were “funded properly,” we would be paying a lot more for a lot fewer launches.
a private company that got bootstrapped by federal dollars, NASA research, and nasa personnel, led by someone who can’t be trusted and is rolling spacex into grok x tesla etc.
Now imagine where it would be if Republicans hadn’t ratfucked the program’s budget for 60 years
found the spacex shareholder
Imagine if we’d funded NASA amd taxed billionaires propely to pay for it all along.
Who would have guessed that spacex would squeeze nasa the very first chance they got. No one saw that coming.
They don’t have the ability to squeeze them. They are offering more launches, with fewer costs overruns, at a better cost.
Huh I wasn’t aware starlink is bringing in so much money.
In addition to the consumers using it, they’ve been making bank on commercial sales like airlines and cruiseships. But ya, it’s a money maker even accounting for having to renew the constellation every 5 years.
Also don’t forget starshield, so they’re taking in government money all around the world too
You’d think non us sales of starshield would plummet though until the trump admin admits they altered starshield in Ukraine, because its beyond horrifying if Musk altered starshield. He can alter starlink all he wants (but will have to face the backlash), but altering starshield should be the brightest red line ever drawn.
Not that trump altering it should instill confidence in allies either though
There’s a massive number of people for who the options are Starlink, or no Internet.
A lot of users here really can’t wrap their head around just how remote some people are. And then there’s vessels at sea etc.
yea we use Starlink at home, otherwise it’s ADSL that barely works -and I mean barely- and costs the exact same.
Yeah, we had ADSL where I live for a long time before we go fibre. Even with the exchange directly across the road from my house, it was painful.
We had Starlink for a few months when we moved into our house. It was a new build and we were one of the first in the neighborhood, so the telecoms hadn’t laid out wire yet.
It was honestly great. We’d get almost a gig down and never really had any connection issues unless it was heavy snow.
My in laws live in the middle of nowhere and they went from I want to say hughsnet to Starlink and it’s been night and day for them.
Starlink has also been huge for vanlifers wanting to remote in to their jobs, but live on the road.
NASA does not need SpaceX. Never will. What NASA needs is for the rich white assholes in DC to stop fucking them over with predatory contractors for five goddamn minutes.
And also proper funding
It’s why they need SpaceX…
They don’t have funding, their rocket program has been discontinued, the amazing reusable shuttle has been retired, and it’s all been done on purpose to make them dependent on the “private industry”.
Obviously if they have the right budget, they won’t need anyone. That’s the point.
The private industry is doing everything NASA was doing at 1/10th of the cost.
the amazing reusable shuttle has been retired
In all fairness, the shuttle was more “refurbishable” than reusable. It needed to be almost completely rebuilt after every flight. Over its service life it proved to be both the most expensive and most dangerous way to get to space. It killed over 4 times more astronauts than any other spacecraft.
The shuttle was awesome, it was truly a great achievement! It made building the ISS possible. But… I’m glad it’s retired, we’re better off with more traditional rockets for many reasons.
we should nationalize spacex. it’s footprint to launch represents a real national security risk. it was literally built on federal contracts. it’s tech was pioneered by nasa and shittons of former nasa folk work there. it’s executive is erratic and unhinged and that’s a clear issue for national security. it’s utility in war - from ukraine to the middle east - needs to be controlled by the national security interests. Finally, spacex’s remit should be launch, not folding in x, grok, tesla and a bunch of other junk to inflate garbage stocks.
Broken up and and dismantled
SpaceX needs NASA contacts now now than ever. The jerk’s AI business has been shoved into SpaceX, and that’s a money burning machine. Should NASA take one too many contracts away from SpaceX, the huge red numbers will come out.
I think this is the right take.
SpaceX may believe they’ve discovered a business model without NASA, but when the bubble pops they’ll be singing a different tune.
This is also a good reason to not nationalize spaceX as so many in this thread are calling for. I don’t want to be financially responsible for the AI mess they’re investing in now. Let them eat those losses.
This result was inevitable the monent that the government decided to outsource their space exploration/scientific endeavors to a private company.
You don’t need to be Cassandra to be able to recognize 100% predictable outcomes.
This is why he’s wrapping all his other companies into SpaceX
I’m amazed Elmo has bots even on Lemmy
This is why you don’t privatize space expiration and research
Or maybe it is why you should not use NASA as a piggy bank for politicians.
privatize space expiration
Dear god
Fixed, I still can’t find a good mobile keyboard
Four of my faves (in the order of what I imagine to be norminess):
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.menny.android.anysoftkeyboard/
Boring, reliable, stable, mature, has almost every language or feature that a standard keyboard can have.
https://f-droid.org/packages/tribixbite.cleverkeys/
New, and its biggest feature is its sophisticated and configurable swipe typing engine. I am not a huge fan of swipe typing per se, but this is a solid keyboard regardless. Works well in a terminal.
https://f-droid.org/packages/juloo.keyboard2/
Works very well in a terminal, reliable, solid, mature, programmer oriented but great for casual use as well.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.dessalines.thumbkey/
My current fave, it’s for single finger speed typing. Do you want to compete with touch typing using only one thumb? This baby is for you. This keyboard requires modifying your typing habits. It’s a pita up front, however, once you learn the thumbkey way, every other keyboard is almost obsolete after that. I do say almost, because some games benefit from ctrl-alt-fn modifiers and a qwerty layout, vim keys are easier on a qwerty, things like that. But thumbkey is a beast jusf for doing fast one finger input.
Futo if your on android ticks (most) boxes for me.
Thanks!
I tried it a few months ago, the issue is I cut the end of my right thumb when I was a teenager so soft keyboards are a problem. I have issues on iOS but its generally better
Ah shoot, that would do it.
Guessing that swipe typing is OK? I remember way back when it was first introduced as a 3rd party keyboard on Android I started using it, but quickly gave up.
Nationalize Space X after all these pedophiles are in prison, lol.
