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Comment by jmward01 | Hacker News Reader

I am a fan of space. I love the things that have happened with SpaceX and breaking the space industry out of a multi-decade rut, but is it possible to dsiconect the political ambitions of Musk from the technical achievements? Or, to put it more clearly, should the discussion be less about 'look how cool this tech is!' and more about 'This tech will be the gateway to space and Mars, shouldn't we be talking about the gatekeeper?'

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There's no reason to assume that SpaceX/Musk will be the only launch providers long-term. They proved out reusability and are proving out the benefits of the Starship design and there are multiple startups working to emulate them.

EDIT: typo, removed redundant 'long-term'.

The launch startup space has completely fallen apart over the last 5 years. SpaceX and rocket lab will make it, I’m not so sure about everyone else.

Disregarding other implications of Musk's political influence, it's not probably not good for SpaceX long-term. Right now it feels like the beginning of SpaceX turning into the next Boeing. A revolving door between industry and regulators, regulators looking the other way, too big to fail, over-charging and under-delivering.

China is spending a crazy amount of money with several companies trying to copy SpaceX. They are trying to land boosters right now.

Have you got a link?

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/a-chinese-rocket-narro...

I don't think we should. SpaceX has successfully applied the "move fast and break things" approach to rockets, but that's not something you can do everywhere. If Musk, as Trump's "efficiency secretary", will reduce regulations that "hinder" Tesla from doing the same thing with robotaxis, people are going to die.

I think there is an honest debate here for the tech side of the house and its implications/risks/etc, but my point is, I think, more broad than 'will we move too fast elsewhere'. I worry he will bring twitter like problems, 'free speech is important, if it is approved by me', to space and Mars. I can easily imagine a future where the Moon, Mars and space are accessible, so long as you are approved by Musk to be in space. That gets to my core point, do we want Musk to be that gatekeeper? Do we want him deciding who and what can go to space and where they can go.

I agree with this, especially when you consider that it is us, the taxpayer that is largely subsidizing musk to build out this toll booth.

It is not crazy to believe that in the medium term that SpaceX will be one of the only viable ways for America to access space. In that position SpaceX will have a lot of leverage and ability to extract concessions from anyone wanting to go to space.

Why my tax dollars should go to help the worlds richest man build a toll booth between earth and space is beyond me.

It may seem a bit trite, but the answer right now is 'because SpaceX is actually doing it'. Space was in a massive rut. SpaceX is breaking that rut and I don't begrudge a single penny that has gone towards that. But a core issue that successful people have is that they assume that because they had success in x they are right in everything else. There is good and bad with Musk, as there is with everyone. I personally would like to kick start the conversation about how cheap access to space can be about society and not about money and personality. We are on the cusp of truly being a space based species and we are just letting it happen instead of guiding it. Now that the technology is rapidly progressing again, it is time to have the conversation about society and space and not just how cool the tech is.

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