Pentagon Uneasy About Elon Musk’s New Spy Satellites
futurism.com
Elon Musk's SpaceX just launched a bunch of spy satellites for the Pentagon — and some in the DOD are getting worried.

After giving in to Putin/Xi’s demands to not provide starlink internet service over Taiwan, DOD officials are growing nervous about trusting Elon’s Space company with our national secrets

  • @mipadaituEnglish
    3•21 days ago

    Problem is that if SpaceX becomes part of NASA, then it’ll be like the space shuttle. It’ll need parts made by every small company that contributed to some random representative in every state, so we’ll end up with 300+ contractors all building critical components.

    • Flying Squid
      1•21 days ago

      Why can’t it source those things the same way SpaceX does now?

      • @mipadaituEnglish
        1•21 days ago

        It could, but that’s not how these types of programs get run. They’re as much about making jobs in specific areas as they are about solving a problem.

        • Flying Squid
          5•21 days ago

          That’s not a very convincing argument. The U.S. has never nationalized a company like SpaceX before. We have no idea how it would be run.

          I don’t find the libertarian “everything the government does is inefficient and corrupt” ideas very compelling.

          • @mipadaituEnglish
            2•21 days ago

            You’re putting words in my mouth and exaggerating my statements. Just look at how the NASA manned space programs have run since the start, AND how they are currently run. Congress puts a lot of stipulations on how they are manufactured. NASA has a big problem with congressional interference.

            Their science/unmanned programs are different, because congress is more hands off. Those are running just fine. The problem is that SpaceX is a huge cost and has a lot of manufacturing and jobs associated with it. That invites congressional interference.

            Not only that, but they also have a large commercial presence already with the Starlink. The government doesn’t typically run things like that, so they’ll probably sell of the Starlink portion of the company.

            It’s not a conspiracy, it’s not libertarian-ism, it’s just how NASA is run. Once the budgets get into the billions, congress can’t keep their hands off it.

            Yes, there are certainly problems with the Commercial Crew program right now, just look at how Starliner is run. We probably won’t get a capsule from Boeing, because they don’t have an incentive to finish, due to the fact that it’s not a cost+ program like the SLS is. SLS is also constrained by politics, they are required to use so many Shuttle parts, just to keep those sub-contractors happy.