It seems likely that the Pentagon will soon force SpaceX to merge into another contractor, most likely Boeing or Boeing's largest rival, Lockheed-Martin.
Putting SpaceX under the CEO of Boeing would make SpaceX as bad as Boeing, not Boeing as good as SpaceX. Also, it's still America. Good luck to anyone trying to "force" SpaceX, a private company, to do anything they don't want.
NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
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Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Putting SpaceX under the CEO of Boeing would make SpaceX as bad as Boeing, not Boeing as good as SpaceX. Also, it's still America. Good luck to anyone trying to "force" SpaceX, a private company, to do anything they don't want.
Trump admin has suggested using wartime powers to nationalize SpaceX. They're already using those powers for deportations. I don't know if they seriously want to do it, but whether they can do it is up to a highly sympathetic SCOTUS.
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#53It seems likely that the Pentagon will soon force SpaceX to merge into another contractor, most likely Boeing or Boeing's largest rival, Lockheed-Martin.
> It seems likely that the Pentagon will soon force SpaceX to merge into another contractor I'm sorry but what? SpaceX is private, not public, and regardless the Pentagon has zero power to force any such thing. It's making gobs of money and growing pretty fast (around $12 billion revenue this year, prediction is/was ~$15.5 billion so something like a 30% YoY increase) with most of that from Starlink, then commercial…
The US would have no problem coming up with hundreds of billions. They wouldn’t need to, though.
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It seems likely that the Pentagon will soon force SpaceX to merge into another contractor I'm sorry but what? SpaceX is private, not public, and regardless the Pentagon has zero power to force any such thing. It's making gobs of money and growing pretty fast (around $12 billion revenue this year, prediction is/was ~$15.5 billion so something like a 30% YoY increase) with most of that from Starlink, then commercial…
The Defense Production Act exists. The US would have no problem coming up with hundreds of billions. They wouldn’t need to, though.
Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on what you think this means? Title 2 of the DPA did indeed allow seizing of private property, but like 4, 5, and 6 expired and no longer exists under present law. AFAIK only provisions of 1, 3 and 7 are still in force, and they would at most allow forcing continued Dragon production. I haven't studied it enough to know whether there is caselaw regarding interaction with the Takings Clause but I'm hardly the first to question it, at-the-time BHUA Senate Committee chairman Phil Gramm lead with that on the review of Clinton's use of the DPA for the California energy crisis. And in general commandeering and so on all require just compensation. It's also 2025, not 1955, and I'm highly skeptical the current courts wouldn't be stricter.
That's assuming it even went through at all though and SpaceX wouldn't win an argument for obvious political retaliation or other forbidden reasoning, or wouldn't drag on the legal fight long enough for 47 to be gone and the next POTUS to reverse course.
>The US would have no problem coming up with hundreds of billions.
Have you like, opened a newspaper (physical or virtual) at all since last year? Growing debt is a huge deal, politicians are arguing over single digit billions or even millions. Hundreds of billions is not small potatoes even by American standards at this point, it's more then the entirety of veterans benefits & services, well over double all education, training, employment & social services, triple the entire transportation budget, etc. It'd be a big fucking line item to take on, and would require Congressional funding.
>They wouldn’t need to, though.
Yeah, they would.
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#55"Musk, who has been engaged in a high-profile feud with US President Donald Trump, on Thursday threatened to decommission the Dragon before later saying the spacecraft would stay in operation." Interesting timing.
That was a pretty dumb tweet as it gives Trump all the ammo to put SpaceX under close government scrutiny and/or make plans to nationalize it, or whatever whimsical thing he can think of to hurt Musk.
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
NASA still cooperates heavily with Roscosmos and American astronauts regularly fly in paid Soyuz seats. The latest one is Johnny Kim who launched in late April on Soyuz MS-27 from Baikonur and will stay on the ISS until december. And Christopher Williams is already scheduled for the next Soyuz mission. China on the other hand will probably never happen because of the general political climate in the US and this admin…
> American astronauts regularly fly in paid Soyuz seats It's a seat swap arrangement, no money is exchanged. https://spacenews.com/nasa-extends-seat-barter-agreement-wit...
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
NASA still cooperates heavily with Roscosmos and American astronauts regularly fly in paid Soyuz seats. The latest one is Johnny Kim who launched in late April on Soyuz MS-27 from Baikonur and will stay on the ISS until december. And Christopher Williams is already scheduled for the next Soyuz mission. China on the other hand will probably never happen because of the general political climate in the US and this admin…
Congress has forbidden NASA to cooperate with China for many years. It's been law since 2011: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Amendment Also I believe that Russia isn't being paid for astronauts to fly on Soyuz. Instead, cosmonauts fly on Dragon. It's a like-for-like exchange which is mutually beneficial (both countries need the other's cooperation to keep the ISS operational, so these exchanges ensure that can co…
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was a pretty dumb tweet as it gives Trump all the ammo to put SpaceX under close government scrutiny and/or make plans to nationalize it, or whatever whimsical thing he can think of to hurt Musk.
It's kind of crazy how he can get away with increasing taxes, increasing debt, cronyism, price controls, demolish law and order and convince his base he's doing the opposite. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled off forced nationalization of industry.
Re: NASA delays next flight of Boeing's alternative to SpaceX Dragon
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
They pulled Jared Isaacman because it was revealed he had donated to Democrats.
That was their excuse. But they probably knew it already upfront, and of course Trump himself has done so and obviously knows that rich people donate to both parties just to cover their bases and that it means relatively little. I think it's more likely that Jared was pulled at the suggestion of some staffers that never liked him or Musk in the first place but weren't able to get their way with Trump as long as Musk…