This is the prototype- the price will go down with repitition....

Right now the Falcon9/Dragon system is said to be about half the cost per pound that the space shuttle was for getting cargo into space. This is a major reduction and SpaceX is hoping to be able to get that cost even lower with future rockets it is currently developing. SpaceX is believed to be much cheaper than any of their competitors, although exact numbers are hard to come by.

I am hoping that the Dragon makes a successful return to Earth today to make this hopefully final test flight a 100% successful. Even if something goes wrong on the return, they have still made a huge step forward in commercial space transportation, but a successful recovery would definitely by the icing on the cake and big step towards eventually carrying people back and forth to the ISS. They have made incredible progress in a very short period of time and hopefully will be able to move forward quickly with getting the Dragon rated for carrying people up the the ISS. I hate the fact that the US currently must rely on the Russians to get to the ISS. The idea that another nation could cut off our access to the space station that we foot the bill for the majority of the cost to build does not sit well with me. I know there are treaties in place that are supposed to prevent the Russians from doing something like this, but I just do not trust them to honor those treaties is relations between the two countries were to sour for some reason.

I think that this start of commercial space transportation to the ISS opens up a lot of new possibilities for access to and the use of space by average people. Having a commercial craft that is human rated will definitely be a huge step forward, opening up many new possibilities for private research activities in space as well as space tourism. Commercial competition is also likely to bring down the costs of getting into space by a considerable amount as it has already done for getting cargo to the ISS and satellite payloads into orbit.

I having troubles when our government is saying private and or commercial for space travel as to the ISS. There is no question the Space Shuttle was to costly and getting old, still we used private and commercial vendors to build all of the parts for the Space Shuttle. Then our government says that NASA was to costly and then is paying SpaceX a large sum of our government money for this lunch. The final line is our big government is still spending money and has cut thousands of jobs so we can say, 'It is not NASA spending it.'

Do not get me wrong, our big government needs to spend money to get jobs going again in the private sector again. My issues is what pocket is the money coming out of and then our leaders tell us, it not NASA - that is just BS.

Commercial space craft is not new, they have been around for many years, 30 plus years. NASA did not lunch any of the commercial satellites that we use today. Private companies paid for them to be put there and in most cases they used rockets that once was used for the government.

I do hope the Dragon comes home safe and we all can thank our tax dollars was will spent.

"There is no question the Space Shuttle was to costly and getting old, still we used private and commercial vendors to build all of the parts for the Space Shuttle."

Well, of course. If the government had to control all the resource production steps, from metal working to engineering, that would have been stupidly inefficient. But it was still their design.

" The final line is our big government is still spending money and has cut thousands of jobs so we can say, 'It is not NASA spending it.'"

It's spent a lot less money, and though this may have resulted in a loss of jobs at NASA, I don't remember hearing about that. Are you sure that "thousands" of jobs have been lost as a result of this decision?

"My issues is what pocket is the money coming out of and then our leaders tell us, it not NASA - that is just BS."

Dunno what to tell you; our astronauts are up there, and we need to get stuff to the ISS. That isn't really optional spending. So no matter what, our government is going to be spending money on rocket ships, either private, Russian, or NASA-built. So it really comes down to "choose your vendor".

"Again public money goes to the private sector with the knowledge created by the government and owned by the government is a freebee. Oh well."

And the problem with this is what? You seem to think the government is an end in itself, but it's not. It exists to serve the citizenry. If the government invents/discovers something then it should be disbursed to the private citizens for us (and that "us" includes corporations) to use as we see fit.

"This is just simply the government privatising more of the government just for the sake of privatizing."

Is that so? And not for the sake of driving technological innovation outside of NASA labs? Or saving the government money by contracting these flights (which we need to supply the ISS)? You seem awfully quick to paint privatization as a "failed radical right wing policy," while completely dismissing its benefits, which every single one of these SpaceX articles has helped vindicate. From here that policy looks rather successful, and you seem curiously bitter about it.

Well it was nice to hear from some of the ex-NASA employees. Above ^^

Big government cannot operate nearly as efficiently as private business does. See Post office failure.

So glad to see that private business has a chance now to do it better, safer, and cheaper!

Get all those lazy do nothing people off the big government tit (NASA) and save the American taxpayers billions of dollars per year. See deficit.

Was watching the live video feed from Space X mission control..there was no reaction from the people sitting there at splash down from what I saw. I figure they be clapping or something.

"The radical policies of the right wing which have failed are all about concentrating wealth. This is another example of this."

A new and unusual application of the word failure. We could use more "failure" like this!

The "right' does have a lot of issues, especially in the banking sector. But this is an example of a private company doing it right! Yes, they have benefited from years of past developments. Yet Space-X spent lots of their own money refining their Merlin & Kestrel engine designs. Most of the other established players only spent gov. money, with nearly every project having cost overruns.

These guys are paving a new path. Why can't you wish them success instead of complaining?

"Was watching the live video feed from Space X mission control..there was no reaction from the people sitting there at splash down from what I saw. I figure they be clapping or something."

They've already become complacent from constant success :p

I guess they just wanted to get the mission over with so they can get on with the next one.

Very Well done gents. thanks for saving the Us space program from the abyss that Obam bam created. Its a great day for human kind, finally a company instead of a goverment gets to space, truly the start of the next generation.

:)

Wouldn't you know that the first comment would be from a "Negative Nancy"?

Another idiot that blames Obama for everything wrong and can't even spell his name right. What a shock.

I am very very happy about the success of this mission, we will get back in space, it will just take time an a lot of effort, this mission shows how determined we are to get back into space.

Very very Nice work SpaceX :-) keep it up my friends, soon with a lot of will, an effort, you will become the leaders in the space industry.

Tom And Lyn

How long until this PRIVATELY OWNED, FOR PROFIT Corporation starts cutting corners to "save money" -- and pad the CEO's bank account?

SF accountant, corporations are NOT people. Corporations may be a group of people who work together for a common goal -- most always the accumulation of material wealth -- but the corporation itself is NOT a person.

Unless you also believe that an automated machine that just happens to do the work previously done by people is also a person........

I wasn't suggesting anything as literal as you seem to think; although judging by your first post, I imagine you were just searching for an excuse to complain about corporations. I was simply saying that the public which governments are supposed to serve includes corporations too (even if they're not people, they ARE taxpayers, after all). So technology developed by the government with taxpayer money should go back to the taxpayers, corporations included.

FYI, your analogy doesn't make a lick of sense. An ATM machine is a physical machine with no particular legal statuse, while a corporation is a legal entity that has no particular physical being. They would need a totally different set of additional qualities to qualify as people... apples and oranges, Quacked.

That the Earth is round and blue with white clouds

Fluffey Clouds ; )

Let me google that for you.... -_- http://lmgtfy.com/?q=benefits+of+the+ISS

These things really are not hard to find.

What was gained by crossing the Atlantic all those years centuries ago?

Not all space research needs to be done beyond LEO, MadMorrison. Earth observations and most extrasolar observations aren't helped by going far away. Commercial space starts in LEO, too.

And if we can't function well close to home, how can we hope to do it elsewhere?

You probably wouldn't have a home PC to spew your garbage on the internet without the space program. Or Velcro for your 80's tennis shoes for that matter.

Things in orbit include: 13 GPS satellites for all GPS receivers on earth. Many communications satellites for phone and internet. Military intelligence (usually an oxymoron, but not always). Observation systems that point at the earth for weather, etc. The Hubble telescope has been a major help in astronomy and astralphysics. Lots of info that will help some and hurt others. And all spin off knowledge some of which has been very useful. Navigation systems...

I forgot something. While the shuttle has been viewed by many as being too expensive, when it came out it was touted as a major step forward in lowering the cost of space travel and launch. Prior to the shuttle, launches were supposedly far more costly. This is just my memory of news way back when, I haven't checked budgets to back up this statement.

I understand we need the private sector to push things but we see that Republicans and Democrats who are really Republicans do there best to sabotage the government.

They talk about big government and failed policies that they created. If they think its a failure. GEt the F+ck out already.

This privatization of Space is just government money subsidizing some Rich A-hole. Where are all the competing companies when there is just one ISS?

LULZ at Johny above:

You also believe wrestling is real on TV Johny?

NASA is a bloated fat dinosaur headed for extinction for some time now. They had their chance and blew it. They were great in the beginning but over time it went way down hill.

The Saturn V was carazy expensive and we cancelled two moon missions because of it. The Shuttle was an attempt to try to do things differently to see if it would be more efficient. In some ways it was (returning payload to Earthm acting as a space station with SpaceLab, etc) but in many ways it was not.

As it turned out the Shuttle was far more maintenance intensive that first hoped, and the cost per launch was high, but not as high as the Saturn system.

You can not compare delving into bleeding edge tech with doing things we already know ho to do. We can get to space, and we have tried expendable and reusable tech, now the exercise is to obtain an economy of scale to reduce cost instead of depending on technology alone to reduce costs.

THAT is what we are doing now, and the financial model of the SpaceX system is very encouraging, the cost per pound could drop to levels never seen because private industry has a vested interest in making this work at a profit, not a loss.

Please understand that you have to amortise development cost across all planned launches, once that R&D and infrastructure cost is fully amortised, the cost per launch will drop significantly.

johny-388777, Google "Bigelow Aerospace"

Yes, there is only one ISS, but there will be other space stations.

guy-832375---There are 24 GPS satts in orbit, not 13.

@ ScoMata1964

The Shuttle was significantly less expensive than the Saturn launch systems. The Shuttle program's ultimate cost-per-launch figure of $1billion/ea is due in large part to the development costs. The Shuttle itself had far lower variable costs than any system before it. The $1 billion number came from the fact that while still in development, President Nixon cut over 75% of the missions that were planned for the Shuttle and then cut NASA's budget by orders of magnitude to pay for the Vietnam war.

Had the SST program had the same number of missions as originally planned, the Shuttle's adjusted per-launch cost would have probably been 1/10th of what it ultimately ended up being.

Also, my understanding is that as a result of the budget cuts, NASA leaned more heavily on the Air Force for financial support, which is why the Shuttle's final design was larger and heavier so that it would launch and retrieve a specific spy satellite that the Air Force wanted...but to not support this mission was to lose the critical funding to make the Shuttle happen at all.

But anyway, BRAVO to SpaceX for a successful mission. I cannot wait to see how the private sector delves into space even further!

Hopefully this success will allow NASA to focus more on R&D and exploration and less on the mundane and routine LEO operations in space.

Seriously, we agree, my point was all about the amortisation and that you cant ignore that or confuse it with actual per launch real costs.

STS would have been cheaper if they had more missions to spread the cost over, but they did not so per launch counting the amortization the total per launch costs of STS was high, but not as high as Saturn because of the low number of Saturn launches.

The shuttle was not capable of the launch frequency planned, each orbiter ended up needing to be overhauled for every flight, tiles were far more trouble than planned and the entire vehicle was basically taken apart and reassembled for every flight. ON top of that stack assembly and fueling were more problematic than planned. Even so it was an amazing system. It is a falsehood that is was too expensive, only people that do not understand accounting would think that when looking at the numbers.

Just like every time they reduced the F-22 order size each plane became more expensive.

Economy of scale is hard to manage when you only have one customer rich enough to buy your stuff.

Jeffor: I know about velcro, but I'm not aware of any significant link between the space program and the PC. My understanding is that due to the harsh conditions of spaceflight, the on-board computers were usually several generations behind what was used on earth.

@ ScoMata1964

Agreed about the maintenance cost headaches. I wonder how costly the Shuttle would have been to service if they were able to stick with the ealier, pre-Air Force design changes.

In any sense, I'm also looking forward to seeing how Dreamchaser does as an RLV-lifting body design.

@ SF accountant

Agreed. I'm glad that the private sector is starting to pick up the reigns of LEO and maybe even start with space-mining at some point down the road. Hopefully they are able to achieve fantastic profits from their work.

NASA is best suited for areas where there's no immediate profit-motive and certain technological hurdles need to be flushed out far in advance.

Indeed. NASA is important, not because we necessarily need people in space, but because we need an agency with lots of resources and no investors they are beholden to. That way they can just theorize and research without having to worry about economic risk or eventual payoff. When they come up with something that a corporation - or really rich citizen with time on their hands - can use, it can be put to good use.

Jeffor, Skane -- Velcro was not created by, nor was it fallout from, the space program. The Internet's roots go back to the Defense Dept's ARPANET. Serendipitous fallout from the space program has been way overblown, though curiously not so much by NASA. It IS cool though.

Oh, and if the space program really does more than pay for itself, I propose that we eliminate the income tax and pay for it with a big increase in NASA's budget, hee, hee!

The 50 year Nasa big govt monopoly on US space has been broken... there should be no more $220 billion pork unsustainable, dead endShuttle programs.. no more $200 billion ISS pork boondoggles.. no more $20 billion Constellation failures... we need not waste another 40 years without a single American leaving low earth orbit... we need not again be unable to even get an American to orbit...

If we redirect taxpayer $s from pork driven Federal Govt agency Nasa to instead support and enable private enterprise innovation, efficiency, spirit then America can finally get affordable, effective, rational US manned space exploration, lunar colonies, Mars missions, visits to asteroids, etc.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy costs $100 million, yet lifts TWICE the payload of Nasa's boondoggle $1.5 billion/flight shuttle.

Amerman, your post is full of incorrect opinions, but I get thefeeling you are not interested in the truth.

Economy of scale is hard to manage when you only have one customer rich enough to buy your stuff.

They have more than one customer, NASA only has about 60% of SpaceX's launch schedule. SpaceX just signed a contract to put up a comm sat using thier new heavy lift vehicle BTW

Atlas (LockMart), Delta(Boeing), SeaLaunch, and now Falcon(SpaceX) programs all sell launches to private industry.

The pie continues to get bigger.

No PC, cell phones and the like all came about as a result of things learned during the space race in the 60s. You are correct though, Velcro was invented before but only saw wide-spread use after NASA started using it. There is no doubt, however, that the space race accelerated the growth of technology. That is a well know fact.

What would you suggest, then?

Me thinks Eric wants to bitch. China produces 10 times as much space junk with 10 % of the number of lauynches as the US. We are very efficient and getting better. Besides, gravity will take care of the bulk of it anyway. EVERYTHING in orbit is in a DECAYING orbit.

SF Accountant, Eric doesn't suggest, he just complains!

Maybe ScoMata and SF accountant will come up with a plan when THEIR houses are hit by falling chunks of satellite.......

The plan is to reduce the number of pieces per launch to a minimum. Eventually the total will drop if China will start caring

The US and Russia are down to 3 pieces of junk per launch, Europe a little higher, Japan is down to almost one. China is still over 10.

Explosive bolts need to be looked at and the possibility of using fewer stages to orbit.

As for getting rid of the big stuff, doable, small stuff not doable any time soon.

Seeing that the Earth is 3/4 water, and its size compared to the junk is in our favor, I will take the odds and never look up in fear.

"Maybe ScoMata and SF accountant will come up with a plan when THEIR houses are hit by falling chunks of satellite......."

I have a plan for when/if my home is destroyed/robbed, actually, thanks for asking.

Though "hit by falling space junk" is probably one of the least likely things that could happen to it. If I believed in those kinds of odds, I'd be playing lotto every day.

Yup! You are so right...we are, metaphorically speaking, at the Neanderthal stage of space flight...or, maybe more like Columbus (been to the nearest New World and back). We are going to need to kick technology in gear. Our greatest hope is antimatter. Our DNA came from the stars, and it's in our genes to return to space.

That being said, here's the down side...something needs to be fixed in our DNA to keep us from trashing yet another planet...not just the ecology issues, but our inability to get along. We don't need to drag our warring nature across the galaxy. (I think it would be awful to develop anti-matter technology to travel to the stars and then re-invent the technology to make weapons...you know this is always a possibilty. As Robert Oppenheimer said; "I am become Death". )

ISIS, Nature has already "fixed" us into a configuration that is incredibly adapted to life on earth. Columbus was reaching for a competitive trade advantage when he "discovered" America, and it was only that same aggressive nature in our colonists that made America what it is today. There is a lot of heartbreaking cruelty in the process, I agree. However I don't think that conquering space, and that is what we are going to be doing make no mistake, would be possible by sending wilting lilys out to do it. Space is pitylessly harsh, and planets suitable to life are likely to have it already. If we are going out to settle the universe our barbarian nature will be reinforced for a long long time. The modern civilization that allows us to sing Kumbaya and keep the blood of our food off our hands is a relatively recent phenomenon. The conditions that allow it will not pertain in the vast reaches of space. Think of trying to settle the old west with modern day "city" people, it just wouldn't work. It will take the kind of hardscrabble pioneers that have always struck out because they couldn't stand their neighbors to pull it off. By the way, keep your fingers away from my DNA.

Yes it is true. We trash the planet for the very same reason we exist at all. As a species, we are fundamentally self-serving and short-sighted, and we grab whatever we want and kill whoever gets in our way. So we survive and the leaf-eaters get eaten, both the human and animal varieties. That is also why we are happy to pollute our own water and air in order to save two cents on the purchase of something - if adding scrubbers to a factory smokestack would mean increasing the price of an item we would rather save our two cents now than save the lives of our children and grandchildren. Turns out this phenomenon will probably be a fatal flaw in the DNA – but have no fear – the cockroaches will survive!

Yup! Bugs are the next big thing. Lived in FLA most of my life....bugs 24/7, 364(5)...you gotta love bugs!!

Humans aren't actually unique in their capacity for mutilating and altering the environment. Look at any invasive species that has thrived in a new environment by slaughtering all the local competitors. There's no reason to think that life in the rest of the galaxy plays by different rules (though it might).

Besides, before we get to colonization (if we ever do), first comes the exploitation of asteroids and probably uninhabitable planets, and I for fully support the depletion and "trashing" of lifeless rocks that may hold plenty of valuable resources for humanity. No life forms, no problem.

Yea great. We have trillions in debt from wars where we enriched the 1%.

Great. Now you want to go to another star? We are going bankrupt. Anti matter my A++.

No one lives forever. With Republicans , I won't be surprised if we start a nuclear war next.

@johny-388777

So much whining... What exactly is your point about Republicans, Democrats, or whatever the H#$% you're talking about. Let's try to focus your point a little better, eh?

Here's the deal... The America you keep referring to is gone. History. Toast. It was bought and sold a long time ago by the corporations and lobbying firms that purchase this country. Your vote doesn't matter and we all pretend that voting in Republicans for one term and Democrats for the next is really "making a difference"... It's not.

Get use to it. We've got the best privatized government that corporate dollars could buy. Why can't you be happy with that? Republicans? Democrats? The United States of American stopped existing a long time ago. We really should change all our currency to say: "The United Corporate States of America", and "In Profits we Trust".

johny the nurse is here with your meds. : )

I am hopeful that once space travel is in private hands we will see much more progress!

NASA has become as useless as the United States Post Office. That is why UPS and FedEx has done so well!

What if there is other life, but it's them or us? Suppose we escape a dying earth and find another planet. It has an oxygen nitrogen atmosphere because it has life, but it's life is, for whatever reason incompatible with our own. Our survival depends on replacing their creatures with ours. Then what? Do we choose extinction in order to respect them? Even if there's no intelligent life there? Or do we choose survival of us at their expense?

On the flip side, what do you suppose some other space faring life forms would do with us in the same situation?

Humans aren't actually unique in their capacity for mutilating and altering the environment

So true, beavers cause massive alterations in the landscape, as dobison and other animals that herd in masses. Herding animals methane alone is a significant contributer to climate change. Swarms of locusts can ravage the landscape also. There are other examples like rats that can invade and devastate entire ecosystems, google "Rat Island" on that.

Altering the environment is absolutely not uniquely human.

@William R. James-4525920

Are you sure an alien species would look at Humanity and assume we're intelligent? Wishful thinking, maybe?

ha ha ha ha. @ Ajsian

Get use to it. We've got the best privatized government that corporate dollars could buy. Why can't you be happy with that? Republicans? Democrats? The United States of American stopped existing a long time ago. We really should change all our currency to say: "The United Corporate States of America", and "In Profits we Trust".

Stop being cynical. Things can change. Its a fight. Its hard when the democrats lie to your face and compromise all the time and then we find out that they are even more right the Reagan.

That is what they want. Do what you can do make your life better. It means reading the fine print. It means finding out and taking responsibility for your 401k.

Its not over. We did not fight the fascists and kick out the Tyranny of king George to get these A++hats.

We just had a bunch of no hopers stand up the 1%. The Occupy movment rable turned up and took it to them.

We saw it. There own police force had forsaken them and beat them for daring to walk in protest past the citadel of crime ( wall street).

The fascist pigs can't win. Do you know why? This is the USA. Warren Buffet went against this own rich folk. There is hope.

@ Rocky,

Great work , Keep it up. Go search the answers yourself. GWB F+ked USPS because GWB F+cks up everything he touchs.

How funny that you're telling other people to stop being cynical, Johny.

But seriously, can you leave the partisian whining out of this article? There are dozens of politically-oriented articles and topics to choose from on MSN, and your complaints have jack to do with SpaceX or NASA.

Johny, CONGRESS screwed up the USPS by funneling money out of it for thier own uses leaving them in the red. If Congress did not do this they would be close to breaking even. It had NOTHING to do with Bush.

Congress will go after any federal agency that takes in money from the public, their greed knows no bounds.

You need to do the research you demand of others because you seem to know little about a lot and half of that is wrong. Take off the biased glassed and learn to think critically.

The "ignore author" feature is great. I suggest trying that for people that put no meaningful fact, insight or opinion into the conversation. johny-388777 is on mine. Though I love refuting those who are ignorant of the true facts about our space program, those few that close their ears like children throwing a temper tantrum don't deserve to hear. Put your heads in the sand like the ostrich, that will make the bad men go away.

Good advice there Mudd

SF accountant said

Humans aren't actually unique in their capacity for mutilating and altering the environment. Look at any invasive species that has thrived in a new environment by slaughtering all the local competitors..

ScoMata1964 said

So true, beavers cause massive alterations in the landscape, as dobison and other animals that herd in masses. Herding animals methane alone is a significant contributer to climate change. Swarms of locusts can ravage the landscape also. There are other examples like rats that can invade and devastate entire ecosystems, google "Rat Island" on that.

And how many of those animals are fully aware of what they happen to be doing to other animals while they mutilate and alter the environment? How many of them do it just so they can accumulate material wealth? How many of those animals are capable repairing the damage they do in their struggle to survive?

I know of only ONE species on Earth which is not only aware of what it does to other animals, but does it to accumulate material wealth AND is capable of repairing the damage it causes: HOMO SAPIEN SAPIEN -- also known as "Humans".

Your "but it happens in Nature all the time" excuse is just that -- an EXCUSE.

Cover your ears and sing "lalalalalalalala...." That will make the TRUTH go away.

Actually, the main point of your objection is a point for humanity, Quacked. As I said, humanity isn't at all unique in that they rape and pillage the land, but they ARE completely unique in that some people seem to care and will give up obvious personal advantage for the sake of lesser life forms.

I'm not saying it's bad or good, I'm just saying that the most unnatural, amazing thing about humanity is that we actually care when no other animal on the planet gives a damn.

So logically, that means that humans as a species are either ethically superior to animals, or people that care about the environment are unnatural weirdoes. Your pick.

God did any of you read anything about Space X. They have matched govt. contributions dollar for dollar. The govt. is the one who is offering the contract to supply the ISS. Just jhny up there needs to get a clue without Reagan you wouldn't have an economy strong enough to get a salt shaker into space. This retard must have never met the economic train wreck called Jimmy Carter. Jimmy's cousin Obama is pretty close to as bad but minus the 17% interest home loans. The USPS has always been a poorly managed money pit how the hell do you figure George Bush had anything to do with that. The USPS has priced themselves out of the competitive market for shipping goods in this country. Go see the postmaster generall if you want to blame somebody. Ignorant leftists that believe MSNBC and there stoned buddy blogger actually provide them factual news really gets old.

We have spent over 400 times (1.29 trillion) that amount (3 billion) in the last 10 years on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

infoplease DOT com/ipa/A0933935.html

Tiva, we do have a say on how the money is spent. The problem is we keep re-electing the same screwed up politicians every election cycle.

Oh please.

$3 billion is less than $10 per U.S. resident, and that's over a period of many years. That would hardly make a dent in feeding the hungry or worldwide birth control measures. And your post completely misses the point that it creates jobs. In the end, all of that money went right back in to the economy as salaries for working americans.

The iraq war was costing us $10 billion a week.

Neanderthal, indeed, Tiva . Why don't you take your complaint about the $ 3 billion spent on space travel by the government where it belongs--- the private sector---specifically , multinational corporations and the robber barons. Do you see Exxon , GE, Morgan Stanley , BP, Rupert Murdoch and his Merry Men ET AL doing anything about world hunger and homeless folks? No, you don't because there is no profit in it. Why do you believe it is solely government's role to do tackle poverty and social issues without also mentioning the churches, NGO's, and your local service clubs? Are you giving corporations a free pass to keep plundering humanity for material gain here ? The space program is the highest and best use of a citizen societal government

I could write all day , but I'll just say it must be sad to live some place---perhaps an inner city ---where you can't easily see the stars and planets

It's been said (or typed) before. The 3 billion dollars wasn't shovelled onto the Dragon space capsule and launched into space. The money was spent here on earth to buy materials, to pay salaries, to rent buildings and equipment, and to pay taxes. I really don't think the engineers at SpaceX are working for Tang packets.

SallyAnn,

What say do we have in how money is spent, laws enacted and existing regulations revised???? Did you have a say or approve of spending trillions for a couple of quagmire wars? Did you have a say on the modified banking regulations that probably got us into the fix in which we find ourselves? Did you have a say on the contents of the Patriot Act? Did you have a say on how IRS regualtion allow illegal aliens to receive huge tax refunds based on fraudulent family sizes? Did you have a say on the approval of the "national health care act?" I didn't think so.

Are you nuts?? The people of the United States have no say. Your election vote, used as you chose to use it, is for naught. We are ruled by a class of millionaires who only care about getting your vote so that they can stay in office. Whether it be for pay offs, insider information or plain ol' ego, they are not servants of the people. Why would anyone spend millions of dollars in an election bid for an office that pays about $174k per year??

Of the people, by the people and for the people went out the window a long time ago.

However, if you're a lobbyist, you may be correct.

@TIVA- it is not the governments duty nor my duty to feed the world, this is how your twisted democratic views F up this country! I honestly can't believe that anyone could willingly think that way and see nothing wrong with it! The government was created to protect you through regulation, not serve you through taxation. So your idea of a great government is one who steals my money and gives it to you because your too lazy to get off your back, close your legs, get a job, pay for your own place to live, pay for your own food, and pay to kill your own baby? You've got some twisted world perspectives and much growing up to do! HEY, you know what else would help to reduce the number of starving children?!...if we just slit everyones throat who's starving ages1-12, GREAT idea TIVA.

start with you first,

3 BILLION dollars??? This money could feed many Americans, help the economy in so many ways.

It already is Tiva. They aren't exactly launching paper money into space never to be seen again. The money goes to pay wages for thousands of jobs right here on earth. Those jobs allow workers to feed themselves and their families in return for providing society something of value, a new transportation system.

It is a very interesting concept and much more efficient than just paying people to sit on their arses and pump out kids.

Well said, Dan42day. . . .

Plus the people who earned that $3 billion are more likely to buy cars, send their kids to school. . . .and not send it all to the drug trade. It's a good investment from the beginning.

"3 BILLION dollars??? This money could feed many Americans, help the economy in so many ways."

I'm sure every engineer and technician involved, who puts a roof over their heads and purchases consumer goods, would agree with you...

Where do you think the money goes...?

I think Spacex employees would have a problem with cancelling their program which would leave them jobless but that's OK you'll use the money to feed their homeless children. We waste taxpayers dollars in so may ways leave them alone. This is how the economy grows to provide future jobs.

3 BILLION dollars??? This money could feed many Americans, help the economy in so many ways. Some of that money could also be used to pay for birth control to help the world reduce the number of future hungry kids. Oh and maybe some of that money could help the homeless and jobless. I mean after all, it's our tax dollars that's paying for this space business. Why can't we have a say about how it's spent?

This money goes to pay the salaries of SpaceX employees, and to buy parts from companies that pay employees. Paying employees keeps them from being hungry AND gets the money into circulation so that it helps the economy.

It never ceases to amaze me that people want to cut spending to help the economy, and cutting spending is exactly what hurts the economy.

Might I suggest Economics 101, 102, 201 and 202?

@ Tiva

Since reality seems too hard to grasp, how about learning about the economy and how it works in a more digestible, animated format

Southpark Season 13, Ep 3 - Margaritaville

Tiva, I'm going to join the chorus. We didn't launch $3 billion in an armored car into space. NASA, SpaceX, Boeing, etc all employ thousands of Americans, from rocket scientists to janitors, from astronauts to museum and gift shop workers. They also pull from vendors scattered all across the US. And as Alan pointed out in the article, both NASA and SpaceX just about split costs in developing the Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket.

And Seriously?, that was hilarious. Great use of alternative teaching tools.

LOL!!! The same crowd that hollers and complains about "Big Government" wasting billions of dollars on space programs is now defending private business for spending billions of dollars on -- SPACE PROGRAMS. LOL!!!!!!

Well, since the SpaceX launch represents less money being spent by the government and a privatization of a previously government-run, inefficient project... yeah, that makes perfect sense. Less money spent, less waste. What's so funny?

Tiva your too ignorant to waste the words to help you understand how ignorant your previous post truly was.

Peak output is 4000 watts, use averages half that.

Tnx ScoMata1964, about what i thought.

What!?! They used SOLAR POWER!?! But solar power is so...so....."INEFFICIENT"!

Or is it "inefficient" only when used on Terra Firma?

It's inefficient depending on your needs and sunlight availability. Sunlight is very easily available in space, and satellites don't have the power requirements of, say, a city.

I mean, really, did you think about your question at ALL before you posted it?

Gotta use electricity to control the ignition and valve circuits to the manuevering thrusters, the computers that control the ignition and valve circuits, the uplink from the earth station that monitors the controlled burns, etc... Nothing works (including propulsion) without an electrical input of some kind.

Wayback. I'm glad I'm not as jaded as you. If I and the rest of the country had your mindset, we would still be changing the channels on our TVs manually. We wouldn't have nav systems in our cars; you would have to read a map, probably drawn by hand. Your precious cell phone would be merely a "what if", since you'd probably be using a telegraph. Shall I go on?

You are award that the money is actually spent on Earth right? That the money is spent to design, build, test, and launch the spacecraft, which is all done in the US by US workers. The money is spent on supplies and equipment from other companies who pay their workers, etc. Its not like they put a stack of money in the rocket and sent it to space.

It's called progress. Would you rather still be living as hunter-gatherers?

Wayback- Do you sit around on your toilet in your mobile home all day scratching your ass? Sure sounds like you do! Go check your garbage can, I left half a slice of pizza in there last week.

Sorry Wayback, but I'd much rather build stuff in space than feed the hungry. If we need money for that, see about cutting somewhere else. Like defense, education, health care, or environmental initiatives.

Not that you'll find much political will to feed the hungry or house the homeless in America. How many politicians have campaigned on that premise? It just isn't a compelling issue. And of course your complaint relies upon the delusion that the budget decision came down to "rocket" or "feeding poor people"...

We need stable funding for NASA so people can focus on research and science and not on wondering if they will be homeless :P

NASA needs to work on material science to bring down the costs. The fundamental problem is the materials are not upto the task of space travel.

The workability of the materials to be made into the parts is not efficient and this needs to be worked out. The private sector is not going to do it. Why? It is expensive we have only one F+king customer. That is NASA.

$10 billion dollars could feed 3,000,000 people three times a day every day of the year. But if politicians did that, certain people would begin to whine about government handouts and enabling the moochers.

Well said Prag

"$10 billion dollars could feed 3,000,000 people three times a day every day of the year. But if politicians did that, certain people would begin to whine about government handouts and enabling the moochers."

So take $10 billion out of our defense budget or medicare or something. Hell, even social security mostly benefits the middle class, and who cares about them when the poor and helpless need a hand, right?

Why does welfare spending have to compete with astro science for funding?

Patience, Wayback. You have to have vision to see the future, and faith that the future will expand even beyond our vision. We are driven to do this; one of our few drives that are actually NOT destructive! To paraphrase Einstein; if you have no joy with or curiosity in the Space Program, I feel sorry for you. It's the Final Frontier, and I am enjoying the heck out of seeing speculation become fact. That's a big part of what our money buys; joy, hope and curiosity. Well spent, I'd say.

You mean the money wasted on space that produced cat scans, digital photography, identifying the component in breast milk that promotes eye and brain development used in all formula, climate research, long distance communications, aviation safety research, 6500 patents by NASA in all most of them affecting your life daily.

Yes, what a waste.

How many million are already fed by the government and some of you want to feed more? How about some of them getting jobs...you know and pay their way.

Science and technology are one of the prime reasons we have what we do have today in this country..without we would be out hunting for our food daily and not at the grocery stores...you libs amaze

Wayback, hope you don't need an MRI or use GPS technology, since those were developed by the same space program you claim is a waste.

Here is our Federal Budget for 2012: $3.83Trillion dollars...

20% - Defense and International Security Assistance ($750Billion dollars)

19% - Social Security ($730Billion dollars)

21% - Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP ($769Billion dollars)

13% - Safety Net programs (e.g., supplemental security income, foodstamps, etc...) ($466 Billion)

We're up to about 73% of the total federal budget so far... I haven't seen the waste yet that Wayback2012 is talking about...

6% - Interest on the national debt - yep, in order to keep it manageable, we gotta pay on that ($230Billion dollars)

7% - Benefits for federal retirees and veterans ($238Billion dollars)

3% - Transportation Infrastructure ($110Billion dollars)

Hmm.... Still haven't found NASA yet and the vast sums of money it's just throwing away....

0.45% - NASA ($16.875Billion dollars)....

There it is...! We found it!

What a wasteful entity... And to think... In the last decade, what HAS NASA done for us...

Ummm... It did help to discover over 700 extrasolar planets in other solar systems that we didn't know existed. It found water on Mars, on the Moon, on Asteroids, on Encedalus, on Europa, and just about everywhere else. It provide us with the technological advancements that all the other posters have mentioned above (GPS, Communications, new materials, etc...)...

Get a clue Wayback2012... NASA is just about the most efficient running governmental agency we actually have the produces results..

Wait a minute... NASA just detected a brand new Black Hole... It's... It's... It's your tax dollars being gobbled up by all the other inefficient governmental agencies that AREN'T NASA!!!

Frijoles-and-Beans

It's called progress. Would you rather still be living as hunter-gatherers?

At least wse wouldn't have to worry about losing our jobs and not have any money to pay for food processed as cheaply as possible which only adds to the chance of that food being contaminated with highly deadly bacteria.

The "Indians" were doing just fine as hunter-gatherers until the Europeans came along and forced them to depend on "gifts" and other handouts from the "civilized" Euro-centric governments.

So, when YOU are no longer able to afford to buy your food, what will YOU be eating?

Anjisan1963 - Nice breakdown of the Tax Dollar. And when you think about that half a penny of every dollar produces 7 or 8 dollars in goods and services for every dollar spent by the Space Program, it seems to be a pretty good investment. Especially when you look at the long list of products spawned from it.

The "daily use" contributions that NASA technology has made not only to American society but Global society with research and development is staggering, IMHO. Sadly, some people think they only created Tang ( which they didn't).

"At least wse wouldn't have to worry about losing our jobs and not have any money to pay for food processed as cheaply as possible which only adds to the chance of that food being contaminated with highly deadly bacteria."

You're right. Sign me up for a "career" of constantly struggling to fend off starvation in an environment almost certainly contaminated with deadly bacteria. That sounds much better than worrying about my job or eating food with a miniscule chance of being poisoned.

"The "Indians" were doing just fine as hunter-gatherers"

Just a heads up, the Indians actually had agricultural just as developed as the Europeans. Remember the story of them teaching the pilgrims to plant corn? You don't learn that in hunting-gathering school.

Your last question isn't really worth addressing.

What's a "Neadrathal"? Did you mean "Neanderthal"?

RUSSIA already has done it -- a PRIVATELY-OWNED, FOR-PROFIT Corporation, using a "Government-owned" rocket. More than 7 years ago.

I just love how the Right-wingers will defend the spending of BILLIONS of dollars when it "just happens" to benefit PRIVATELY-OWNED businesses.............

Yep, it was all done by a Corporation that got got the money from GOVERNMENT, too.......

Interesting that all of this has been done many times already by Government Agencies -- yet it is being heralded as "historic" ONLY because a 100% PRIVATELY-OWNED, FOR-PROFIT Corporation has done it.

How long until corners are cut, endangering those who have to work on/in the space craft, so the CEO can have an even bigger amount of money in his bank account? I can "hear" an excuse now.........

"They don't really need all that shielding, cosmic rays are not dangerous, the Earth gets bombarded by cosmic rays all the time......."

Yes, that does make it historic. So what?

And the government doesn't have a spectacular record for space program safety. The Challenger accident was due to "corners being cut" for the sake of budgets and deadlines. So you're going to have to work harder in your hypothetical prosecution of future launches.

There is a reason that aliens are still allowed to live here and jobs are outsourced - American's don't want to work, they want to get paid but really would rather consume then work. They look for opportunities to take advantage of the systems: worker's comp, disability, suing for excessive overtime, harrasement. Small businesses employ people who end up robbing, stealing, embezeling - and it only gets worse generation after generation so that now you have people who would rather protest against people who DO work then find work themselves. Don't even start on the plunging education, kids don't want to learn and teachers are worn out - not much in the future pool there except for the best and brightest and they won't be working in factories.

So do you see why the have to find people willing to work and work hard at anything? It's not happening here. It's not the President or Congress - its the Country.

Mountainstateboy, Obama HAS deported MORE illegal aliens in 4 years than the Bush did in 8 years. Look it up. Why do you suppose that is?

and the Teflon cookware the women use today again was developed by the space program.

I'm pretty sure it's not just women using teflon cookware. Just saying....

mountainstateboy, tell your Rith-0wing Tea-Tagger Republican Conservative Greed-meister Money-lover friends to STOP HIRING THOSE "ILLEGAL ALIENS".

Or have you "conveniently forgotten" that it is ILLEGAL to hire undocumented workers?

Hey daryl-2183015 you are not alone. Last year, when all those "illegals" packed up and left Arizona, Arkansas and Alabama, and all the other states where it's the migrant farm workers who do the harvesting, crops were rotting in the fields and orchards.

Where were all those Right-wingers who had those jobs "taken from them by the illegals"? Oh, right, they won't do anything for less than $15 an hour.........

"Rith-0wing"? That's a new one. Whatever does it mean?

ThinkVoice and how are illegal aliens not exploiting holes in the system by crossing the border illegally and then committing fraud to steal another persons SSN or identity to obtain a bank account. Then jump on the welfare rolls and have there children paid for. Now they don't even want to be troubled with all of the stealing. They should be allowed to vote for who runs this country without having to provide any form of ID. at all.

Thats right. NASA went backwards since then.

Why? We have a congress full of fools that lack morals and the country is falling apart. The problem is that 1% have captured 93% of the income gains. You wonder why its a cluster f+k.

My problem is We have executives getting an increase every year. How many millions more will they get next year? Will it make any difference to them working? No. Its just the 401k circle. They use fancy words to hide the problem. We have the fund mangers ( executives ) which vote the corupt incompetent boards and these boards vote in the unproductive criminal executives.

Thats all the policy we have. Make the rich richer, and take pennys from the poor to do it.

In the sled dog world if you want speed you use small Siberian Huskies that cant pull much weight (They gallop when they pull) but have excellent endurance, if you want to pull heavy weight you use massive Alaskan Malamutes that dont have the speed of a Husky (They trot when they pull) but are stronger pound for pound than any draft animal on the planet but at the cost of speed.

In space travel its all about getting a heavy payload to a destination, how long it takes is secondary. You need Malamutes, not Huskies.

NASA is now building that Malamute, and so is SpaceX, because that is what the mission profiles require. When we require something along the lines of an X-Wing fighter then we build the Husky.

If you want to solve the electricity problem, develop the permanent magnetic motor that the government doesn't like and the coal and petrocompanies don't want developed. Free engergy from it would make the fatcats get another line of work!

Already been done and already been shelved. Along with engines that run on water, super long life energy cells, and a recyling system that eliminates all waste. For that very reason.

If cold fusion was developed today we would never see it - for every person that is smart enough to save the world there are a hundred that would rather see it burn if they can't profit from it.

Bruno:

And how you'll be transporting the energy down to the Earth?

Mountainstateboy:

Bwahaha! Perpetuum mobile! Are you buying those ads to sell its "plans"?

Mountainstateboy. I pray that is sarcasm. If not, you might want to occupy a physics class at one of the universities in your mountain state.

Space power lines. Wait, the moon orbits the planet doesn't it? Uh, batteries, maybe?

Ah, whatever. Have we ever found any worthwhile minerals on the moon?

NASA handed is controlled by failures. What can you expect? They just hand over science to rich folk. So they can get more wealth and destroy what is left of the middle class.

vote out the Republican nitwits and Democrats who can't even tell they republican lackies.

Science belongs to rich folk anyway. Who do you think funds all this stuff? Our government's wealth doesn't come from nowhere.

Not that your argument makes sense anyway. Space technology is going to destroy the middle class? How? Are all the engineers at these competing space tech firms (there are more than just SpaceX) all 1%ers?

Yeah right, then it will come out that it's just like that movie 'Moon' with Sam Rockwell and all the colonists are really clones being used for slave labor.

You are obviously ignorant of how science research works and what is going on at ISS. You admitted it with the ignorance in your post.

SF accountant

Science belongs to rich folk anyway.

Oh, so anyone without sufficient amounts of money is not allowed to do any research, or benefit from Science, is that it? That's what you seem to be saying.

Hey, look at that, I just took something and made it into what it looks like it is. Just like certain Palinesque politicians do.

Well, "sufficient" amounts of money means very different things according to the technology you want, but basically, yes. I don't get to benefit from computer technology unless I can afford a computer (not too hard). I don't benefit from agricultural technology unless I can afford food (not hard at all). I don't get to do medical research unless I can afford to join a medical school (very hard).

Of course, the government subverts this frequently, so it's less "not allowed" and more "doesn't get any unless other people give it to them".

In terms of astro science, though, yeah, that's a rich man's game. Or rather, it is now. It used to just be the government's game, so it's actually a big step forward.

Yea that makes as much sense as NASA just handing over all the trained people to Space X and then congratulating Space X for using the tax payer to get rich.

Wow. One customer . Its really going to work this free market. I can see all the competition?

Actually, there is competition. The article above mentions Orbital Sciences Corp, a prospective competitor. And SpaceX is apparently trying to develop technology for longer-running space travel to other planets, despite the lack of any current government contracts to do so.

And the owner of SpaceX was rich before he made the company, FYI. Not that I think there's anything wrong with making money off of government contracts (is there ANY fundamental aspect of economics and business you're not pointlessly opposed to?).

SpaceX has about a dozen different customers for the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9. They're booked pretty solid through 2017, and they're adding to their launch manifest as new opportunities arise. They just signed one contract for their Falcon Heavy vehicle to put a telecom satellite in geostationary orbit, and the rocket is still on the drawing board. They are doing quite well beyond servicing NASA's needs.

Actually Johnny-38877, SpaceX has LOTS of customers and business... Check out facts before making false statements. Here is a partial list of upcoming clients:

Europe, Argentina, Thailand, Bigelow Industries, Canada, Taiwan, Asiasat, Spacecom (Israel), and so on...

Why is it that when Humans find something that happens to be as Nature and God intended, they must must "develop" it into something else?

The American Wilderness was not "developed" -- it was CHANGED INTO SOMETHING ELSE. "Development" is just another way of saying" I don't like what this is, I want something else here, something from I can profit financially".

Anjisan1963

Actually Johnny-38877, SpaceX has LOTS of customers and business... Check out facts before making false statements. Here is a partial list of upcoming clients:

Europe, Argentina, Thailand, Bigelow Industries, Canada, Taiwan, Asiasat, Spacecom (Israel), and so on...

Ah, GOVERNMENTS -- not individual people. Certainly not individual people who cannot afford to spend a few million dollars to go into space for a few hours or a few days..............

Yep, it's perfectly ok for GOVERNMENT to spend billions of dollars on a space program, as long as that program is "run" by Private Business.

"Why is it that when Humans find something that happens to be as Nature and God intended, they must must "develop" it into something else?"

Because "God" has this annoying tendency to make things way too inconvenient or useless (animals that run away, iron in ore form), and gifted us with the insight to fix it. He's kind of half-assed like that, but hey, nobody's perfect.

""Development" is just another way of saying" I don't like what this is, I want something else here, something from I can profit financially"."

Yes. So?

@ - The Quacked One

Bigelow Industries, Canada, Taiwan, Asiasat, Spacecom (Israel), and so on...

Ah, GOVERNMENTS -- not individual people.

I do believe Bigelow Industries is a corporate client, as are Asiasat, and Spacecom.

I guess I can see why you call yourself "The Quacked One". You have all the knowledge and know-how of a bonafide Medical Quake.

"There are more hungry and homeless today than there was a year ago."

If true, this is probably a result of the current economic tremors. The economic growth in developing countries has been consistently and rapidly reducing the number of hungry and impoverished around the world, and there is no reason to think that trend is going to stop permanently.

I only take issue with that statement. I agree with the rest of your post, though.

Oh great. We have 49 million Americans in poverty. We get these wise cracks. Why don't you try living in a cardboard box and food stamps.

I would, if I hadn't made good decisions, applied myself in school, and then worked hard to land a steady job, with which I can afford good food and housing. And I did it all in the midst of the financial crisis, too!

But I know that actually working hard to avoid poverty is a bizarre and foreign concept to you. Don't worry, just get rid of all those nasty Republicans and I'm sure the nation will magically and counter-intuitively become... uh... whatever it is you think would be an ideal nation. I really have no idea what that is. I assume all rich people are burned at the stake and the government just hands all citizens a check every month for existing? Something like that, maybe.

Since LBJ started the war on poverty in the 60s we have spent over a TRILLION dollars and the poverty rate has risen.

Its hard to help those that wont help themselves, and the truly needy too often get lost in the shuffle. If we just helped the actual needy we could save billions, not spend more billions.

Throwing money at problems rarely helps, we did the same for education and scores just keep dropping no matter how much we spend.

The space shuttle failed because the NASA directors are failures.

As is the case with many government departments and initiatives. Lots of good ideas and intentions, and extremely poor implementation.

Dragon succeeded because the people at SpaceX are not failures.

So as far as I can tell, a major problem has just been corrected in our space program.

How is 30 years of launches a failure?

Bigben, I wholeheartedly agree. The venerable capsule design is the most efficient method of capping one of these glorified Roman Candles, but... We Need Something Cooler Looking!!! Watching the shuttle orbiter touch down was a thrill that we might not see again for a long time. There is the DreamChaser, so we might be able to get some of the thrill back. These capsules are just sooo pedestrian!

Well, if it can be made to work right (which the space shuttle never did), I imagine that you'll see a new shuttle design in a decade or so.

OOOps, I shoulda said, "glorified bottle rockets"

Maybe the shuttle looked cooler, but it isn't any more efficient. The reason a space capsule is used is because in space wings are actually counter productive. They give no advantage and get in the way of having thrusters all over to make it actually move efficiently in space. The glided reentry isn't anything special. SpaceX already has plans to use the Draco thrusters on the Dragon capsule to land it vertically. I'm all for a cool design, but capsules are efficient, and its why they have been used by all space agencies.

The Skylon being developed by the UK is a hypersonic space plane that will achieve orbit from the upper atmosphere instead of being sent up on rockets. It's still in the design phase but check it out on Youtube it's pretty cool. I dare say cooler looking than the shuttle.

The space shuttle's lack of efficiency was due in large part to the fact that it pushed materials science technology past the limits of the performance envelope. It was a great vehicle, essentially a reusable space station unto itself, its just the technology to properly build and operate them was just too marginal.

There will be another day for space shuttles, just not today. For now, SpaceX is on the right track with a fully reusable rocket stack system. That's right, these rockets you see going up aren't intended to be one off and trash'em, even the boosters are eventually intended for recapture, refurbishment and reuse.

Patience, these are still prototypes being launched.

Meh, it's about time they set this technology free in the private sector. Let 'em keep busy with research and highly experimental stuff.

SF accountant

Meh, it's about time they set this technology free in the private sector. Let 'em keep busy with research and highly experimental stuff.

Yea NASA did it 50+ years ago. Wow. Way to go Space X. Congrats on that.

Wow its a good market. We just have one customer? NASA. Yea thats really a great industry to be in.

I don't understand the point you're trying to make with all your sarcasm. And perhaps I'm just being judgmental, but considering your many posts railing against private industry and rich people, I don't think you understand business well enough to be calling SpaceX on being in a failing industry.

For the record, Obama's focus on Commercial space flight is the reason this has happened. Congress has been the ones cutting funding for NASA and especially for commercial space flight.

I know it's politically expedient for you to blame Obama for the canceling of the shuttle program. But you do know Bush is the one who canceled the shuttle right? And that the shuttles had already gone years past the point where they were supposed to be shelved for safety reasons right? Right?

It's ok. I know, I know, we're supposed to blame everything Bush did on Obama and just develop amnesia over who actually caused the problems right? How else are we going to get the black man out and get another corporatist warmonger in there to redistribute more middle class wealth to the top 5%?

Thanks Prez Obama for kick-starting private LEO space industry and focusing on reaching near-Earth asteroids and Mars for the next steps!

Dude, sorry but you gotta live with it unless you delete your profile and set up a new one. Sucks, doesn't it?

It's odd that you consider building a space rocket for a legitimate mission (supplying astronauts) "mooching off of us" but don't think the same of giving money and resources to people who haven't done anything to earn.

So is anything that benefits wealthy people in any way inherently wrong, and anything that benefits poor people inherently noble?

@ SF accountant

At this part of the thread, Johny's frothing at the mouth is just too irrational and annoying for me to continue reading it.

Yeah, but I'm a glutton for argument. The more irrational and hateful they get, the more I'm inclined to question them. Too bad they rarely come back to answer the questions.

@ johny-388777

Why...? I should have recognized you... I know you!

Well I didn't have my glasses on, I was slightly distracted, busy with some things, but I knew I knew you from somewhere...

...You're the hairy, ugly little smelly bugger who lives under the bridge and gobbles up naughty children aren't you?

Of course you are... That's the deal with all the snide comments, and attempts to smear everything. Your just another dirty troll...

Well, begone with you and your extreme smelliness. Back to your place beneath the bridge. Off with you now...