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Comment by perihelions | Hacker News Reader

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I do think we need to make the US a place where builders can build, but I disagree with this justification pretty strongly. This isn't a public organization working for the public good, it's a private company doing R&D to create a spacecraft that they will own and control.

We're also, at least in the legal sense, not at war.

It's a defense contractor with a track record of delivering things to USGov no one else is capable of (Starlink/Starshield). They're not a public service—but they do work for the US.

SpaceX is private, however this whole Starship program has NASA (public organization) funding parts of Starship's development for lunar exploration, as part of the Artemis program

Private companies can have strategic value, too. The capabilities of SpaceX is what puts the entire US on the top of the current space technology race.

Imagine having to beg the Russians to get the two stranded astronauts back to Earth.

I bet Elon tweeting AI generated videos of the VPOTUS in soviet garb helped a ton here.

SpaceX is not part of our national security. They are one launch platform.

They should be punished, they keep blowing up spaceships. Know what didn't blow up on it's first trip to space? The Saturn V rocket, from the 60s!

Uh. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1

Yes they are one launch platform, and the only launch platform capable of some of the things they do!

Apollo 1 didn't explode during a launch. It was a rehearsal.

For me, it is a national security risk to allow an unelected, largely unaccountable, private individual to have this much control over crucial areas of national interest.

> We're at war

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

What War exactly?

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