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Comment by csdvrx | Hacker News Reader

Now let's hope it will inspire more countries, or even companies, to launch their own!

I'd prefer countries to cooperate more. There's no need to have dozens of national space stations or even launch systems. Some diversity is Ok, but it's just too damn expensive.

> I'd prefer countries to cooperate more. There's no need to have dozens of national space stations or even launch systems. Some diversity is Ok, but it's just too damn expensive.

The reason the Ariane (rocket) program exists is because the US put restrictions on European satellites if they wanted to launch on US rockets.

I'm all for cooperation, but often times you need a strong alternative in order to negotiate effectively.

Perfidious Albion 2.0

I think that was the hope for ISS in general with the rationale being that the cost would be just too expensive for any one country to bear. And ISS, not completely unlike the globalization and connections between countries would force some modicum of cooperation.

I think we were way too optimistic about ourselves as a species. Our cooperation does not last long.

The ISS still makes Russians cooperate with other nations. That's quite remarkable given the underfunded state of Roskosmos and the insane dictatorship that is the Russian Federation.

It'll remain expensive if only countries are launching things. If commercial space launches continue to pick up steam it will get cheaper.

Nation states are the biggest customers in any case. And there is blurry line between what is a "commercial" offering.

If launches have nation state level prices then of course the only entities that could afford them would be nation states for the most part.

Right now I'm pretty sure Starlink is the biggest customer of a private space launch company. Yes I know it's pretty much the same company but look at the other satellite internet providers that are also using SpaceX: Viasat, Echostar (Hughesnet), Iridium, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Globalstar. That's most of the providers that are out there. This goes hand in hand with commercial space launch, as launches become cheaper and more available the share paid for by private business will increase. This is a good thing! Don't you want a college or even a high school to be able to afford to put a small satellite in orbit to do simple experiments? The only way people are going to get interested in space exploration again is if they themselves can actually do things in space, in person or remotely.

Yeah I agree. But competition breeds advancement. It has roots from capitalism all the way down to natural selection and survival of the fittest. It works.

There's no doubt in my mind that part of what's driving China in not just the space race is the fact that they want to beat the US.

In space exploration competition is just wasted effort. There may be some benefit, but only when the majority is dropping the ball. Cost effectiveness is already a major driver in innovation, and even inside a national space program there always is a high degree of competition between ideas and concepts.

All competition is wasted effort. Perfect collaboration always wins. But competition is what motivates humans, and unfortunately this inefficient way of working is what drives humanity forward.

China would not even bother with half the stuff they accomplished for space if it were not the existence of a competitive goal. The irony is what the US tried to do to contain them in actuality enabled them.

Like parts of the ISS will be privatized after 2030. Could form parts of new space stations.

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