SpaceX is doing things that current nation states can't/won't do and do it on a comparative shoestring.
Yes NASA did amazing things (as did Roscosmos) with the technology they had but they had much more resources as well.
If SpaceX continues on it's current trajectory I wouldn't bet on a return to the moon and back inside a decade or so.
Also if you adjust for $/kg to LEO (and eventually Lunar orbit) then SpaceX is crushing NASA.
It's all about what metric you pick (or cherry pick if you are trying to make a point) really.
NASA is amazing, one of my favourite organisations ever back to been a kid in the 80's watching the Shuttle launches and some of the stuff they've done on pure science is amazing.
Let NASA do the pure science (which realistically has to be publicly funded) and SpaceX (and it's private competitors (when they get some..)) focus on that "$/kg to space" - we win both ways.
Also for Clarity, I'm not an Elon Musk fan, I think he's a bit of a prick.
I respect the outcomes/people who work for the companies not the man.
At the peak of the Apollo era NASA was 4.41% of US Gov spending.
For 2020 that would equate to about 264 billion dollars.
SpaceX isn't spending 264 billion dollars a year and look what they are doing!.
SpaceX is doing things that current nation states can't/won't do and do it on a comparative shoestring.
Yes NASA did amazing things (as did Roscosmos) with the technology they had but they had much more resources as well.
If SpaceX continues on it's current trajectory I wouldn't bet on a return to the moon and back inside a decade or so.
Also if you adjust for $/kg to LEO (and eventually Lunar orbit) then SpaceX is crushing NASA.
It's all about what metric you pick (or cherry pick if you are trying to make a point) really.
NASA is amazing, one of my favourite organisations ever back to been a kid in the 80's watching the Shuttle launches and some of the stuff they've done on pure science is amazing.
Let NASA do the pure science (which realistically has to be publicly funded) and SpaceX (and it's private competitors (when they get some..)) focus on that "$/kg to space" - we win both ways.
Also for Clarity, I'm not an Elon Musk fan, I think he's a bit of a prick.
I respect the outcomes/people who work for the companies not the man.
At the peak of the Apollo era NASA was 4.41% of US Gov spending.
For 2020 that would equate to about 264 billion dollars.
SpaceX isn't spending 264 billion dollars a year and look what they are doing!.