NASA has always been dependent on commercial for profit entities as contractors. The Space Shuttle was developed by Rockwell International (which was later acquired by Boeing). The Apollo Program relied heavily on Boeing, Douglas Aircraft (which later merged into McDonnell Douglas, and then merged with Boeing), and North American Aviation (which later became Rockwell and was acquired by Boeing), and IBM. Lots of cutting edge stuff in that era happened from government contracts throwing money at private corporations.

That's the whole military industrial complex Eisenhower was talking about.

The only difference with today is that space companies have other customers to choose from, not just NASA (or the Air Force/Space Force).

He’s a chicken shit ? Why are all these tough guy conservatives such pussies

I mean, I wouldn't either. I wouldn't want to risk death. He knows it's not risk-free.

Honestly, rocket development has always been filled with explosions - the Saturn V had like 6 engine-out events during Apollo and the early Falcon 9 tests were just as explosive. what's different now is we get to see the failures in HD livestreams instead of classified footage that would've been buried in the 60s.

I now have the Street Fighter voice in my head going:

"Honda Wins!"

For the killjoy that will come pointing out that SpaceX is at another level of development etc., yes, I know that.
Japan also has a constitution written by the US that doesn't permit them to have long-range missiles.

I'm all for mankind colonizing the stars, but I don't want that A hole down a K hole Elmo involved in any way. I don't trust the cunt not to have a back door into the colony, that he opens whenever his fee fee's get hurt, or if his K hole runs dry.

Break out the marshmallows

Waiting for the SpaceX bros to tell everyone how this was actually a good thing because it was supposed to happen and means everything is going well.

I think Honda has begun building spaceships/rockets too. Think they chose to build the type that don't explode. link

NASA ran the projects. They have specifications to contractors for manufacturing. That's a far cry from farming out the entire process and renting space on a commercial rocket.

Oh please. Elon will long be dead before we are ever seriously colonizing mars.

If you like SatNav, accurate weather tracking, and advanced intercontinental communication then ya like rockets ya dipshit.

While Id be the first to ban private rocket launches outright, we shouldn't abandon the advances of the space age because of them.

Rocket fuel is toxic. Don't cook with it. Don't touch or breathe it. Don't even look at it.

Once it's burned it's mostly safe, aside from the usual problems with combustion products.

You've got good points, but your needless insults makes your argument fall on deaf ears.

Hardly. Honda have just replicated what Falcon 9 has been doing every week for years.

It's less that people are putting faith in Elon (sure, some fanatics might be), but it's that everyone else is somehow even worse.

SpaceX is actually getting stuff to space, despite their prototypes blowing up. Hell, even if this Starship thing is a complete failure and never works, their existing rocket, the Falcon, is still far beyond any of the competition.

The SLS: $10 Billion and a decade late to develop a ship that recycles old Space shuttle parts, then costs $2-3 Billion per launch, and maybe can only launch one every 2 years.

ULA Vulcan: currently years late, still finding problems, and even after all that gets worked out, it can maybe do 6 launches a year?

SpaceX: 1-2 launches per week.

That's not faith, that's just facts. I would absolutely love to have somebody else step up and take SpaceX's crown, but... there really isn't anybody. Bezos's Blue Origin may have the biggest chance, but they are more likely to act like ULA than SpaceX.