Yeah.
The maintenance of these conatellations is pricy, so perhaps if such an international program does prove itself trustworthy you'd see other national alternatives get retired.

I mean it's not like the US would do it anyway as things stand, more likely for such a program to get started independently and to end up outcompeting starlink down the line.

Global communities reveal the disgusting chauvinism of the nationalist "we". It's cult speech.

Civil religion - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

So it takes a spectacular failure of capitalist grifters? Check.

Technically no. Bailout =/= nationalization.

let’s not forget the agency that launched the probe that passed the edge of the solar system and is still functional and doing valuable things…… in the 70s

and is still functional and doing valuable things in the 70s

Oh, wow, you might wanna sit down for this.

which part? it’s still transmitting right? and they got useful and interesting data from it only a few years ago

The point of communism is that things are state owned.

No, honey, it's 2025.

I don't know what happened to you, but im so fucking sorry.

Edit: you can down vote me all you want. It doesn't change the truth. Odds are everyone you knew is dead.

It’s worse here than on Reddit, IMO.

Yeah, maybe we can nationalize them with the clause that it kicks in when his heart stops beating

Governments: spend 80 years developing space tech with public funding, allowing humanity to walk on the moon, have global positioning satellites, and essentially kickstart the computing industry from a necessity to build computers for orbital calculations

Yes, government funded endeavors are sometimes the only way to do things that don't have a clear ROI but they are also incredibly inefficient and as such should be kept only until it becomes viable for the private sector to take over.

Private companies: *mostly disappear and waste shareholder money, like Virgin or like Bezos' attempts at space

That's the beauty of the private sector, pure meritocracy, if you suck - you die. If those were public initiatives they would have been kept regardless of the costs or the results, wasting the taxpayer's money instead of the shareholders'.

one company with public funding raking in those 80 years of publicly-funded research to itself

If it was that easy NASA or all the failed companies you mentioned would have done it themselves. SpaceX has done an absolutely incredible job at innovating in the industry that has been in stagnation since the 80s, designing rapidly reusable rockets, lowering the cost per kg to LEO from $72k in today's money, from the space shuttle days to $2500 and planing to reduce it to $10 with starship.

The public funding part doesn't mean free money from the government, the government pays SpaceX for fulfilling contracts because NASA can't do it themselves, at least not as efficiently as SpaceX. Right now majority of SpaceX's revenue comes from starlink which mainly serves private consumers so it's reliance on the government contracts is being overstated.

underpaying and exploiting its engineers

SpaceX $155K-$247K/yr ($117K - $175K/yr base pay + $39K - $72K/yr stock)

NASA $113K - $158K/yr

lowering the costs at the expense of safety due to cutting in safety measures thay will never be tolerated when humans ride those rockets

As of 2025, SpaceX is the only U.S. company with a human-rated rocket system certified by NASA for regular flights to the International Space Station. NASA completed the certification of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket in 2023, marking the first time a commercial system was certified for human spaceflight.

Dumbass liberal lemmitor: pRiVaTe Is ClEaRlY sUpErIoR

Yes.

This is the same mistake everyone makes. They think Donald Trump is just a person. That he actually matters and we just have to get rid of him and everything will be okay.

It doesn’t work that way.

As fascism didn’t die with Hitler, it’s not going to die with Trump. All of the problems — all of the rifts in our society — will still be there when he’s gone.

Sure, that's the ideal.

Is it likely? Ehhhh

I don’t think the majority of Americans understand what that means. They’ll just scream “commies!” And raise their maga flag.

But the idea of a starlink-like business owned by UN would be nice, and not an American corporation owned by a nepobaby Elmo.

We are already fucked. The choices given are siding with Trump, and end up like Russia, or side with Elon, and end up like Cyberpunk 2077

It was more than something like a loan, the federal government actually a fair amount of control over the company. It ended up divesting itself once the new, restructured company made its IPO, but during the bailout, the US gov was technically in control, and it got priority over all other interests since the company went private with special financing.

It's certainly different than other nationalized industries, but it was also much more than a regular bailout.

From this admin? Nah. It'll be stolen and given to, idk, Thiel or Vance or whoever, but not nationalized, just reprivatized.

Not to mention that Musk himself contributed nothing to SpaceX's technical achievements. All he did was insist that the audio of their launches and recoveries include employees cheering maniacally - easily the most annoying aspect of SpaceX.

The GM situation was a more than a bailout, they took complete control of the company, took it private, liquidated some assets, then sold it off in a new IPO.

It's not all that different from a private equity firm doing the same thing, the major difference is the legal protections the US had (e.g. it got priority over all other creditors). If the US wanted to keep it and run it, it could've.