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SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

nytimes.com

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Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#211

Post by vidarh »

Super_Jambo wrote: post #190
valuearb wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Kindle is good and Echo is great. Every other hardware product they've ever made has been complete dogshit, which is why the packaging for most of them advises buyers to set them on fire.

The newer kindles are kinda shitty for the consumer, much better for Amazon no doubt. The switch to touch screen and adverts all over your library & store is really jarring. So much so that my tech friends now just buy second hand kindle 4s when their old ones break. It's possible that library lock in will stop them migrating away from kindles when the supply of kindle v4s runs out but not I think certain.

If so, point them to Calibre. While I currently use the Kindle app to read my books, I have made it my "policy" to on each purchase ensure that I am still able to break the DRM and store a backup copy in a non-DRM'd format. The moment that changes, I'll stop buying Kindle books.

Some purists would prefer to avoid buying DRM'd products in the first place (and I do when I have an alternative), but this is "second best" to me - I'll tolerate easily breakable DRM, but not one I can't remove.

The upside is reduced lock-in - it may affect usability (the Kindle app is still the best reader app I've used for Android as well - if anyone has recommendations for any actually usable ebook reader Android apps I'm all ears) but I know I can read all my books on any device, using free/open apps.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#212

Post by sidlls »

rl3 wrote: post #78
troyastorino wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue Origin has turtles in it's coat of arms because the strategy is slow and steady...Bezos doesn't feel the need to compete on speed here.

I'm neither an Amazon nor Bezos fan, but that ethos is something I respect. Rocketry isn't something you rush. Frankly I'm surprised SpaceX hasn't had more mishaps given the breakneck speed at which they operate.

The vast majority of SpaceX's current success is attributable to government funded research and experiments (the entire space program for the last several decades) and government funding (currently) that Musk is taking advantage of. They don't have more mishaps because the innovations they're undertaking are small relative to the existing body of research and experiment, and built on a solid foundation that already exists.

It's popular in some circles (not directed to your comment, here) to lionize Musk as some exemplar of how the government sucks and to promote privatized space exploration but that's just not in line with reality as it actually is.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#213

Post by jerrylives »

imron wrote: post #142
strictnein wrote: post #69

I mean, SpaceX is great and all, but it's no Cargill or even in the same league as Cargill or other similar companies like Koch (which is #2 in the US): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill Revenue: US$109.6 billion (2017)[1] Net income: US$2.835 billion (2017)[1] Total assets: US$55.8 billion 25% of all United States grain exports 22% of the US domestic meat market

Wait a decade and spaceX will have the following line item: 100% of all interplanetary travel, shipping and trade.

lol want to make a bet on that?

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#214

Post by fsloth »

oblio wrote: post #115
fsloth wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he's hired the rocket guys who can't take SpaceX's speed and like to actually spend evenings at home with their family :)? Only half kidding here.

Bezos, famous for creating a family friendly environment at Amazon? :)

Just for the sake of argument it's feasible a person can be mentally flexible enough to apply different management standards to retail and rocket science.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#215

Post by Klathmon »

beaconstudios wrote: post #167
oblio wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All in? Charles Foster Kane: You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.

Musk did go all in though, at one point he was dead broke from pouring all his money into spacex.

It's one of my favorite stories about SpaceX

Early on in their life as a company, they had 3 back-to-back failures. They were a laughing stock of the industry for the most part. The idea that this little (by comparison to NASA or some of the established private players) company could take on rockets and make them reusable was a joke.

But Elon (and IIRC Peter Thiel) poured more money into it in spite of this, and they were finally able to get moving and are now (at least in my mind) at the forefront of the industry in many areas.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#216

Post by Retric »

kamaal wrote: post #176
EduardoBautista wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon has a load of terrible products. Even their store is getting worse and worse. The fire phone was a complete flop. Amazon cloud drive and music are not at all at the same level as their competitors. Google Home is looking as though it's going to surpass the Echo. Amazon is successful because they are fine with taking losses, only just recently making a small amount of profit compared to their scale.

The guy who does 100 things and wins at 10 still comes out above the guy who does 2 things and wins at 2. This is despite the previous guy having a failure rate of 90% and latter guy having a success rate of 100%.

Depends on the cost of failure and the benefits from winning. Fewer bets tends to mean larger bets which can pay off more.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#217

Post by taneq »

erikb wrote: post #134
taneq wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but on what timeframe? That's why small family businesses are some of the longest enduring - because their owners want them to generate earnings indefinitely. Investors who buy shares are often looking for much shorter term gains (1-5 years) and will put pressure on the board to sacrifice long term viability for a short term boost in share price.

Consider a world where your company always dies after 1-5 years. But for each dying company there's a new one. Investors still make profit, people still get products, employees still get jobs. In that kind of scenario do you really need a long living company? I'd argue you don't. Long life is an arbitrary factor that in itself has not much value. And the longest living companies may actually be the biggest ones. At a…

Some (all?) products need more than 1-5 years of active development to really become awesome. Every time a company dies, a huge amount of knowledge is lost.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#218

Post by EGreg »

angstrom wrote: post #204
agildehaus wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Falcon 9's first stage certainly reaches and (fairly greatly) exceeds the Kármán line in RTLS boostback, as the graphic shows. Even in an ASDS landing, it exceeds the Kármán line. I think the typical apogee is around 120-130 km. Stage sep happens below the line, however.

Having played several hundred hours of KSP I can confirm you shouldn't underestimate momentum. It's amazing that it's even possible. I think the number I've heard is if the earth's gravity was something like 10% stronger this wouldn't be feasible.

Can you elaborate on this? Are you saying with a 10% higher gravity we wouldn't be able to escape Earth's field with any amount of thrust? What?

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#219

Post by planteen »

compton_effect wrote: post #188
LoSboccacc wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most kinks of space travel were worked out in the '60s and spacex is pushing for reliability specifically, not for payload capacity - coincidentally that's where they're pushing the envelope and getting most of the failures.

Not really. In the 60s we basically verified that certain rocket and engine designs work and that we could go beyond earth orbit. Creating a reliable, long lasting and reusable space rocket/vehicle is, in my opinion, orders of magnitude more difficult. Just look at the Space Shuttle failure as an example of trying to do space on the cheap. Also, remember it took about 5% of the US GDP in the 60s to put men on the moo…

A reliable, long use rocket is not exactly new either. Delta II first launched in 1989, 153 launches, 151 successes. There will be another launching this fall for JPSS-1.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#220

Post by imron »

jerrylives wrote: post #213
imron wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a decade and spaceX will have the following line item: 100% of all interplanetary travel, shipping and trade.

lol want to make a bet on that?

I was being a little hyperbolic, but I'm curious, do you think Musk won't make it to Mars within 10 years or that other companies will be able to do it by then too?
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