If Falcon 9 and Dragon Capsule are both successful...

[Swampcat]

You're right dude. I forgot about that. My bad.

No problem. We all make mistakes

 

[DarkenedOne]

Thinking about this, I have a question for anyone who knows or wants to chime in. Does NASA have to be the only customer that SpaceX services for manned flights? They do have international customers for satelite launches. What if the Euros, the Japanese, the Chinese or even some of the less technically advanced countries in the world want to use them for manned flights? It would definitely save them money. NASA has provided SpaceX with a launch complex at the cape, but could not other countries do the same thing, i.e. provide SpaceX with lanuch facilities around the world, in effect sub-contracting out a ready made manned space program. Could the US or NASA stop SpaceX from providing their services to anyone who pays? They are a private company after all.

As far as I know there shouldn't be anything to stop SpaceX from providing services internationally unless they signed a contract that they'd serve NASA exclusively, which I don't think they would. However, there might be some tricky laws on the books regarding the export of SpaceX products and services, especially since I believe most spacecraft are classified as missiles, not aircraft still. I could be wrong about all of that, though, so please someone correct me if I'm completely mistaken.

If you think about it that is really the whole point of private human space flight. The difference between NASA and a private company is that NASA is a government agency. Congress provides NASA with money and a mission to explore space and conduct space science. That is it. They are not going to do space tourism or space colonization or anything of that sort because it is not their mission.

Companies like SpaceX on the other hand are private corporations, thus they do not have this limitation. They are free to explore all aspects and uses of HSF. That includes the traditional uses such as space exploration and space science, but also new markets like space tourism.

To me the saddest thing about HSF is the fact that after almost half a century the technology being in existence only NASA is serious about it. While commercial and military applications for unmanned spacecraft has just exploded in the last few decades, HSF has stagnated because the only application people can find for humans in space is space science. Even sending humans in space for science is in question due to the increased capability and low cost of unmanned spacecraft. This fact has left some people wondering why we do HSF at all. If everything goes well companies like SpaceX and Bigeleow aerospace will be successful and we will see more investment in HSF by entities other than NASA.

With any luck space tourism and space science will turn into a thriving multi-billion dollar HSF industry, and the private sector will be fairly competent at getting humans back and forth from LEO. It will be much cheaper for NASA because they will not have to spend billions of their own money to build rockets like the Ares 1. Honestly when was the last time you heard of NASA developing their own un-manned rocket? Never. They do not because they do not need to. They simply buy a already developed and well proven rockets for a small fraction of the cost of building and maintaining their own.

 

[dragon04]

SpaceX will not only be successful in launching a Falcon9/Dragon cargo shiip to the ISS but will prove that manned spaceflight can be done most cost-effectively in the private sector.

It baffles me why so many people seem to be resistant to manned spaceflight being "privatized". I should think that to be an inevitable outcome of a Government-sponsored, taxpayer-funded space program. One of the favorite (and IMO a very good one) arguments of spaceflight proponents is all the products and technologies that have come to the general public as a result of NASA. So why shouldn't Commercial Spaceflight be a logical offspring as well?

As a taxpayer, I'm encouraged by the possibility that less of my tax dollars will be used to shoot men into space. As a space enthusiast, I'm encouraged by the thought that major impediments to manned space flight such as red tape and bureaucracy will be largely eliminated by the privatization of manned spaceflight.

I can't say how important I feel it to be to get space exploration as de-politicized as possible. Space flight has too often been used as a tool of propaganda or as back-room leverage in negotiations about whose pet projects get funded in order to maintain NASA and such. People should be excited that we're on the cusp of literally putting manned spaceflight in the hands of the People.

I was highly skeptical of Elon Musk and SpaceX when he first started the company. A Billionaire with a very expensive hobby, I thought. I was wrong. Even with unforseen delays and setbacks, SpaceX will in all likelihood have a heavy launch vehicle regularly boosting cargo and humans to LEO long before NASA develops and deploys whatever it is they're currently wasting taxpayer $$$ on.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Dragon, ^^^^^^ best post in the thread.

 

[mr_mark]

Spacex is perfectly capable of sending any nation into space if the money is there when that time comes. As far as other questions about private space go, we need to privatize space as quickly as possibly. It could happen at a future date an American government would decide to axe human spaceflight. What then? Without private space based systems worldwide there would be no guarantee that a human program would ever be started again. We all need to root for private space because it is the only factor guaranteeing the future of human spaceflight.

 

[docm]

I've long thought that a government run taxi service to orbit makes as much sense as a government run airline; little or none, and the more flights are made the less sense it makes. As mr_mark says the last thing you want is depending on politics and political animals to maintain the service; unless part of it's in their district or state they could give a rip, and that's no way to run any transport service from taxi to railroad to spaceline.