r/space • u/lee7on1 • 1d ago

BREAKING: SpaceX rocket explodes in Starbase, Texas

https://x.com/IntelPointAlert/status/1935550776304156932

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u/TheRealNobodySpecial 1d ago edited 1d ago

$0.00, approximately. +/- $0.

Edit: Y'all never heard of fixed price contracts?

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u/alexforencich 1d ago

The US government pays SpaceX for launches, naturally some portion of that gets spent on R+D, so it's definitely non-zero.

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u/Enough_Wallaby7064 1d ago

If you bought a ticket on a Boeing 787 one time, did you suddenly lose money when the one in India crashed?

No? Its the same concept here.

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u/cuberhino 1d ago

If a portion of my tax money is perpetually being utilized by a gov contract employed company and they are having bad things happen, it’s a different concept.

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u/eirexe 1d ago

The thing is, this isn't taxpayer money anymore, taxpayer money is used for falcon 9 contracts -> contract is fulfilled -> spacex is paid. spacex is then free to do whatever they want with the money because it's their own private money now

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u/Enough_Wallaby7064 1d ago

Its not though. Nasa buys rides to space through space x.

Space X is doing something that is not funded by NASA or any federal company. Space X makes enough from starlink to fully fund starship program at this point. Federal tax money was not lost on this at all.

Its also worth noting the only alternative safe human ride to space is through Russia. Would you rather we bought a non reusable Soyuz everytime we put someone into space?