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SpaceX just sold the US Air Force the cheapest enormous rocket it's ever bought
SpaceX has won its first contract to launch a classified military satellite on its Falcon Heavy rocket, beating out rival United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The launch contract will cost the US Air Force $130 million, far less than the $350 million average cost of United Launch Alliance's Delta IV, previously the heaviest lifter in the US arsenal. SpaceX's disruptive business model has proven itself in the national security arena, where it has won five previous contracts since its rockets were certified to fly military missions.
The US Air Force decision signals confidence in the engineering behind the new rocket, which consists of three modified Falcon 9 cores strapped together and flew for the first time in February 2018 after seven years of development and testing.
Also at Ars Technica and Space News.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @05:16PM (6 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny4NASA [wikipedia.org]
By anti-spaceX activist Neil DeGrasse Tyson
derp
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday June 22 2018, @05:54PM (1 child)
I might be inclined to support his Penny4NASA if he were not anti-SpaceX.
I don't understand why he is anti-SpaceX. I knew he was, for some time now. I looked at this:
https://www.theverge.com/2015/11/24/9792854/neil-degrasse-tyson-interview-delusions-of-space-enthusiasts [theverge.com]
From that article
The government also has not stepped up and made that investment. The government does not have the political will to take on a gigantic expensive project like it did in the sixties, and pay for it. Private billionaires just might. Especially if they can build a successful space launch business model to fund it.
Undercut the entrenched inefficient competitors. Take their business away. Raise SpaceX launch prices and still undercut the competitors, while making a tidy profit to reinvest into more development and other ambitious plans.
Maybe I'm what Neil DeGrasse Tyson calls delusional. But it sounds to me like it might work.
The government is fickle.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 22 2018, @06:34PM
deGrasse is evolving on SpaceX but probably won't admit he was wrong and just move the goalposts (to Mars):
https://www.fastcompany.com/4020648/neil-degrasse-tyson-changes-his-tune-on-spacexs-mars-mission [fastcompany.com]
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/neil-degrasse-tyson-says-he-wont-be-a-spacex-customer-until-elon-musk-does-this-2017-04-02 [marketwatch.com]
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 22 2018, @06:32PM
Even the ballooning JWST program is a better place for your penny than SLS/Orion.
If SLS/Orion was cancelled and NASA's budget was increased to 1% share, a lot of science could get done.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 22 2018, @07:15PM (2 children)
He is PRO NASA. Your own link doesn't say a thing about being Anti SpaceX.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday June 22 2018, @09:43PM (1 child)
if you're 'pro' SpaceX, you have to be 'anti' SLS/NASA
if you're 'pro' NASA, you have to be 'anti' SpaceX.
This is a law on the internet. Stop adding nuance to debates (popularity contests/mud slinging/whatever)
If someone with reservations about a space start-up, who is 'pro' an *idea* of NASA (kind of "to the moon" era NASA), who is reserved (I'd say "conservative", but that is too loaded a word, these days) doesn't come out 'ra ra Musk'/'yay SapceX', he is taken to be against SpaceX, with no regard to his actual statements.
Most people who know about what NASA *used* to do, and, perhaps *could* do again, should be upset with the way SLS, and US Government priorities, have gone bad.
It should be "lets go to space", not "but not on *that* rocket"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday June 22 2018, @10:06PM
Pro-NASA = Anti-SLS.
SLS is a Congress-mandated pork rocket. NASA gets more cash for its development than it even asks for.
NASA Gets Money it Didn't Ask for to Fund Second SLS Mobile Launcher; WFIRST Mission Receives Funds [soylentnews.org]
House Spending Bill Offers NASA More Money Than the Agency or Administration Wanted [soylentnews.org]
It's a "good" idea to shovel money into SLS/Orion, since if BFR launches before SLS, there will be many more calls for its cancellation. Shoveling the money in speeds up initial launch(es), or allows more money to be blown before cancellation can happen.
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