Routine_Shine_1921 t1_iwhnmha wrote on November 15, 2022 at 6:36 PM

Reply to comment by spcialkfpc in How many different companies now have built a rocket and used it to deliver anything or people to space (besides government organizations like NASA and the Russian equivalent)? by Courcy6185

We're talking about companies that managed to reach orbit or launch their rocket without government funding. SpaceX got there without government funding or intervention. Nada, zip, zero. In fact, it was the other way around, on top of taxes, the US government was getting money from spacex, since they where charging them through the nose for the use of launch facilities. Only well after SpaceX reached orbit, did the US award some contracts. And, in that case, it's clearly never been funding, but rather contracting. The US pays for a service, SpaceX delivers it. What they get from the government is not significant to their operation.

spcialkfpc t1_iwhvbno wrote on November 15, 2022 at 7:25 PM

Correct. SpaceX developed a vehicle for space launches with private capital. In order to launch it, the DoD provided funding under DARPA, and access to the launch site, which was subsidized by the US Government. Under the same program, a dummy payload was successfully put into orbit. The first time SpaceX put its vehicle into orbit (Falcon 1, 2008) was with a NASA funded competition for servicing the ISS. The first SpaceX manned flight was with NASA, and NASA funded with NASA astronauts. SpaceX built a launch site in Texas, with Government subsidies and agreements. SpaceX has successfully put hundreds of satellites into orbit, with both commercial and Government money. SpaceX has yet to put a vehicle in sustained orbit, but that is being subsidized with Government money and contracts.

SpaceX is steeped in Government money, by design.

Routine_Shine_1921 t1_iwhynbp wrote on November 15, 2022 at 7:46 PM

Not true. SpaceX put its vehicle in orbit for the first time in late 2008, they paid for it themselves, with a mass simulator. DARPA did pay for two launches earlier, neither of them was their first orbital test.

Far from "access to the launch site" being subsidized, the government not only charged them for it, but also screwed them, literally, multiple times (as expected, the government exists for the sole purpose of screwing the people over). They paid for Vandenberg, built a lot of infrastructure then, and then the military said "yeah, we weren't expecting you to actually use it, you can't launch", so SpaceX lost all of that investment and had to move in a hurry.