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Re:Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry by WalterBright on Thursday May 30, 2024 @04:51AM (#40521528)
The profit motive has proved, over and over, to be a more effective motivator than anything else, including getting whipped and/or shot for failure.

I remember an earthquake in LA caused a freeway interchange to collapse. The government offered an incentive of something like a million bucks for every day the rebuild was completed ahead of schedule. The contractor got it done in a stupendously short time.

Re:Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry by jefftk on Thursday May 30, 2024 @09:50AM (#40523709)
Yes: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02ramp.html

Which is still something that CA sometimes does, with apparently good results: https://www.ktvu.com/news/california-contractor-earns-8m-bon...

Re:Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry by incahoots on Thursday May 30, 2024 @12:17PM (#40525442)
>The profit motive has proved, over and over, to be a more effective motivator than anything else.

The USSR and it's space program would argue differently.

Re:Starlink's Disruption of the Space Industry by WalterBright on Thursday May 30, 2024 @01:12PM (#40526147)
How so? NASA wasn't motivated by the profit motive in the 1960s, either. And SpaceX has completely trounced NASA and the Russians in rocket technology.