Wie SpaceX zum MyPillow staatlicher Auftragnehmer wurde

Oh look another hit piece from an irrelevant blog

The most interesting part of this is how SpaceX is so very heavily dependent on government payments and subsidies. I think Musk has made a calculation that if the Republicans win he will be rewarded because of his demonstrations of loyalty. And if Democrats win he will be rewarded because they actually want to get shit done and SpaceX is executing pretty well on rocket launches.

What the hell is this title lol

Wow very apt analogy! I don’t like MyPillow guy because Trump is bad, and now I also don’t like Elon Musk because Trump is bad! Very nuanced insight, eloquently explained by this genius at The Verge!

At least we get to see good explosions from Elmo because all of their rockets constantly blow up.

We get nothing from a more comfortable pillow.

I work in the aerospace industry and find Musk’s behavior generally reprehensible, but I think that this article’s take is stupid. MyPillow sells a dumb commodity product based mostly on a grift and advertising at old people. SpaceX is by a parsec the most effective aerospace company in the world.

They do things that even 15 years ago would have been considered fanciful nonsense. They are the leaders in the technology, the design, the manufacturing, operations, and implementation. There is no other aerospace organization in Europe or North America that can compete with them.

The Chinese government is potentially doing a credible job of trying to keep up, but they keep their aerospace stuff much more secretive than we do and are still probably 15 years behind SpaceX. They have a pretty high tolerance for failure though and will probably catch up at this pace.

The take that SpaceX is dependent on government contracts and Elon Musk is a welfare queen working the refs is missing the point. The entire aerospace industry that is not commercial airlines is entirely dependent on government subsidies. Until Starlink, there was almost no case for an entirely profit-driven commercial entity that would spend the money to put something in space. Even a technology like GPS — which has worldwide economic benefits — would not exist if not for the hundreds of billions (trillions?) of dollars that has been sunk into spaceflight.

You can complain about Musk’s behavior all you want, and you can complain about SpaceX dominating spaceflight all you want, but the reality is that they have earned it by just being better at it than everyone else. None of the other old space companies (Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed etc) have their appetite to make big bets because they are so used to cost-plus contracts that are literally guaranteed profit machines. SpaceX ONLY takes firm, fixed price contracts. Regardless of how much it costs them to deliver, they get the same amount, and so they are better at delivering on time and on budget than anyone else.

Incidentally, more people should know who [Gwynne Shotwell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynne_Shotwell) is. She’s the real reason SpaceX succeeds.

I’m just here to share how hard I’m laughing to the picture used. Look at these dorks, trying so hard to be recognized as something cool or great. Hahahaha!!! Dorks!