Why Elon Musk's SpaceX is even cooler than Tesla

[RV_]

For folks genuinely interested in realities instead of the business politics, this following article from The Space Review in association with Spacenews is a must read. I think it will answer everyone' questions as it details why the space industry is where it is today, and why. It validates part of what Joel was trying to say without personal feelings involved. More importantly it shows what happened in reality as far as launch failures. Remember the record for SpaceX. 18 successful launches with the Falcon 9. It shows why I have a problem with folks saying that government oversight is the only way, which was true before SpaceX, and since.

 

This is an excellent piece, but if you won't read it I'll not excerpt it here:

 

Launch failures: normal, healthy paranoia

 

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2436/1

[RV_]

As to the costs? From Motley Fool last March and unbiased: Article title: Can SpaceX Really Cut the Cost of Space Travel by 75%?

 

Excerpt:

 

"The upshot for investors... and taxpayers

As ULA's CEO tells it, since taking over the company he has helped to cut its average launch price in half, from $400 million (coincidentally, about the same amount SpaceX says ULA is charging today) to about $225 million. He intends to cut that cost in half again, to $100 million, by retiring the Delta, consolidating five existing launch sites to just two, expanding the customer base (ULA currently gets less than 20% of its revenue from commercial customers, for example), and developing a new rocket engine that is even cheaper than the Russian RD-180 used on the Atlas.

 

Indeed, ULA is even toying with offering fixed prices for its rockets in the future, permitting customers to "build your own rocket" online -- much like SpaceX does. If that's how this plays out, then ULA has a shot at competing effectively with SpaceX for a business worth billions of dollars in annual revenue to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and that earns the companies profit margins of 8.7% and 12.7%, respectively (according to data from S&P Capital IQ). If he's right, one day soon, ULA rocket launch costs could approach those offered by SpaceX.

 

For the time being, though, the truth appears to be that ULA launches are not four times as expensive as SpaceX's. They're only twice as expensive.

 

But don't expect to see that fact highlighted in the ad brochure."

 

Can SpaceX Really Cut the Cost of Space Travel by 75%?

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/03/29/can-spacex-cut-cost-of-space-travel-75-percent.aspx

 

Note how that CEO was just replaced, and all of that forward looking cost cutting remains just that. I hope they do, really. SpaceX needs competition to keep it on its toes too!