So for a while I’ve been repping Elon Musk and SpaceX and before people start suspecting me of blind hero worship and brand loyalty for brand loyalty’s sake, let me explain why exactly SpaceX is literally going to change the fucking game and allow regular people like you and I, to travel Space in the next few decades, maybe less.
Go back in time. It’s the 19th century and people are starting to drive cars around. There’s a problem though. Car companies only build cars that work one time. Every time you want to go to work: $30,000 please. Every time you want to pick your little brother up or your daughter or son at school: $30,000 please.
We take it for granted how lucky we are that our cars work more than once. The ability for repeated use IS WHAT MAKES IT WORTH THE $30,000.
Right now the only rocket company, the United Launch Alliance (a merge of Boeing and Lockheed Martin) build their rockets this way. Sure, rockets cost more than cars and they’re hard to build, but we landed on the Moon in 1969! That’s just under half a century and our technology hasn’t markedly gotten cheaper or improved.
SpaceX says there’s no reason for this. Rockets and space travel should be getting cheaper as we get better. Why hasn’t the ULA gradually figured it all out and developed cheaper ways to get to space? My friends: they don’t want to. They have a monopoly on launches (they’re the only company allowed to sell to the Air Force) and because they know this, they don’t feel that in order to make huge profits they don’t have to improve. There’s no competition because the government says so.
SpaceX Launch: $200,000
Lockheed Martin & Boeing Launch: ****$400,000,000****
Is there any wonder the space age never came? Why ON EARTH ( 😉 ) isn’t SpaceX allowed to compete?
If you’ve got 120 people who buy tickets to visit the ISS (or anything that might be visitable in the future) the average trip to space per person would cost as much as a plane flight from Boston to Mumbai!
I absolutely guarantee you that the pressure Russia is currently putting on American space programs will give SpaceX the leverage to bid against ULA. This will open the door to a new space age. This will allow people like you and I to become astronauts.
The first video they released a while back of the safe upright landing blew my mind.
Yet another fine blog…. 😅 