Re:Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of...
by nabla9 on Monday June 07, 2021 @10:15AM
(#27422868)
NASA has given seed money and development funding for Dragon, Falcon 9, engines and demonstration launches ($248M at least) https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/453605main_Commercial_Space_Minutes...
I think this is the same way as Boeing and others get their money for development.
Re:Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of...
by himinlomax on Monday June 07, 2021 @02:13PM
(#27425995)
The difference is that Boeing and others are financed the way a public works would be, like a bridge or highway. They thus have no incentive to get cheaper / more efficient once they get the contract, and in fact make more money the less efficient they are -- as long as the government doesn't tire of paying them. SpaceX gets development subsidies, like the others do, but they sell launches, not an ongoing project. As a result, the more efficient they are, the more profit they make.
Re:Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of...
by nabla9 on Monday June 07, 2021 @02:23PM
(#27426135)
United Launch Alliance (ULA), sells launches. ULA sells launches for Delta IV Heavy and Atlas V. ULA is Boeing/Lockheed joint venture.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, New Horizons, Starliner crew capsule ... basically all NASA and DoD launches come from ULA.
It's important to note that SpaceX is different from most space-related government contractor in that they mostly sell a packaged service, whereas other contractors before it had development contracts. Boeing / ULA etc were paid to develop launchers, SpaceX sells launches. (I know that SpaceX benefited from subsidies towards achieving that, but their competitors did not achieve that or even tried.)
The key difference is that they are not (entirely) incentivized on sucking on the subsidies teats. That the US government pays them to provide a public service makes them more akin to any utility than to typical government contractors.