• RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world
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      40 minutes ago

      SpaceX has loads of capable engineers. If NASA gets a massive budget increase, they need to draw from that pool of talent.

  • zbyte64@awful.systems
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    2 hours ago

    The oligarchs wouldn’t like that precedent but they might go for purchasing SpaceX since it is owned by a foreigner. Kind of like with TikTok…

  • Grizzlyboy@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    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.

    • film@sh.itjust.works
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      23 minutes ago

      Does the UN do anything? You know it’s just another one of those US creations.

    • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      In the USA space-x gets away with a lot. A few years ago they announced they were no longer going to bother with getting all the FAA approvals needed for their rockets because it took too long. Space-x still got government contracts.

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        If your want proof that the wealthy live by a different set of laws, look no further than the time Elon Musk, ceo of SpaceX, went on a podcast and smoked weed.

        SpaceX has DOD contracts for launches, and somehow him blatantly violating federal law had no impact on the contracts his company fulfilled for the government.

        Do I think weed should be classified like it is? No.

        Do I think that everyone should be held to the same standard? Yes. And if anyone else had been involved in government projects while going on podcasts and smoking weed, they’d at the very least be fired.

      • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 hours ago

        A few years ago they announced they were no longer going to bother with getting all the FAA approvals needed for their rockets because it took too long. Space-x still got government contracts.

        How long back was that? I genuinely didn’t hear about that, but I believe that would happen. I tried googling “space x faa” but I’m getting results of FAA investigating rocket issues and approvals of rocket models.

    • Tillman@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Can you imagine who would run those companies if they were government owned?

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        2 hours ago

        Yeah. A gov; be it the UN or a country.

        Having worked and then contracted to regional and Muni govs, and worked for dotcoms, I can tell you one of them follows way, WAY more of the regs than the other.

        It’s like transpo & highways vs private roads and rail: one of them is way better-maintained when there is a comparison.

  • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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    8 hours ago

    Yeah, let’s give the trump administration the power to seize companies it doesn’t like, that is a great idea that def won’t be abused all the time

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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      7 hours ago

      We no longer live in a world where our biggest fear would be the government controlling high level corporations and their operators.

      We now live in a world controlled by Sociopathic Oligarchs who can afford to create government level technology. Right now it’s mostly tourism rockets and satellites, but now we see Skum weaponizing that technology, and/or using it as a bargaining chip. He has cut off Starlink in a war zone to benefit the county who defers to him, but is openly hostile to the US, and now he’s threatening to cut off our access to the space station. He is using tech that WE PAY FOR with government contracts and grants, to pursue his own diplomacy, for his own benefit, and against our interests.

      Eventually, someone will start building and stockpiling actual weapons, perhaps even atomics. Then we will be asking why someone didn’t step in and stop them before they became a bonafide threat.

      We paid for Skum’s technology, and he gets to control it as a courtesy. Just the threat of using it against us should be enough reason to declare him a national security threat, confiscate his American-taxpayer financed businesses, and imprison him.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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        6 hours ago

        We now live in a world controlled by Sociopathic Oligarchs who can afford to create government level technology.

        People have lived in that world for most/all of human history. Assuming you come from the west, you’re coming from a place where for the last couple of hundred years it’s been more cost effective to just buy the government instead. Is that better? Maybe, it’s a little more stable. I dunno if it’s good though.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 hours ago

        Eventually, someone will start building and stockpiling actual weapons, perhaps even atomics. Then we will be asking why someone didn’t step in and stop them before they became a bonafide threat.

        Bruh this has already happened over and over again. Nobody stops them because the most violence empire on the planet is leading the way. AFAIK the USA is the only state to have actually nuked people.

        See also the zio regime. Imperial allies supreme.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option

        • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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          6 hours ago

          First of all, America is not “the most violent empire on the planet.” America has the capability of being the most violent nation, but at the moment, our potential for violence is being eclipsed by other nations who are actively employing the same levels of violence that we are capable of. Nothing we are currently doing comes close to the violence that Russia and Israel are employing.

          And yes, America is the only nation to have deployed nuclear weapons against human targets, but that was 80 years ago, and ended the worst war in human history. After demonstrating its power, just the presence of nuclear weapons in a nation’s arsenal has been enough to keep the most powerful, well-armed, violent nations (including America) from going too far.

    • seejur@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      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

      • Disaster@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        …or organize, start/join unions, get involved with your local community and build up some real resistance that isn’t based off obscene wealth, lawfare or media brainwashing. Once you have experienced something real, it’s quite hard to understand how or why anyone would fall for the alternative.

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Has anyone considered funding NASA?

    They made rockets that didn’t explode with duct tape and a TI-83 calculator.

    • Uruanna@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Shouldn’t be incompatible with nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink. Just give it all to NASA, actually.

    • Rose56@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      They didn’t, because someone got paid to write this article!

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      7 hours ago

      If that was actually their expenditure I don’t think they’d have their budget cut.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        Looks like we found someone who believed it was financially necessary for the manufacture of the shuttle to be spread across the country.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      No thanks. We need to shut down all U.S. affiliation with prisons outside the U.S. Release those prisoners or transfer them back to the U.S. and have proper trials. Trump needs to stand trial for the fake electors and for every unconstitutional measure he has done before/since as an unconstitutional act that the Supreme Court deems unconstitutional should not be considered an official act. The President should be suspended from all duties until Congress performs an investigation draws up the articles of impeachment and it is tried by the Senate.

      Musk should be tried for election interference and any other laws he may have broken but it should be done right here in the U.S. If anything freeze all of his accounts and require him to step down from any/all roles within his companies as part of his required bale terms, or otherwise he would be choosing to spend the time awaiting trial in jail.

      These actions would ensure they aren’t trying to drag court cases out for years, they would want the court cases to move along faster.

      Would Trump get convicted by the Senate, unlikely. That’s on us for voting terrible people into the legislative branch. But we can’t complain about those who break the law if we think it’s fine to break the law when it fits our wants. We need to update those laws legally or tear the whole thing down and say Musk and Trump didn’t break any laws because we didn’t think those laws mattered as well.

  • Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 hours ago

    Starlink should not just be nationalized but internationalized.
    It is internet for everyone on earth, not everyone in the USA.

    Every larger nation deploying their own constellation would be a pointless waste of resources, and every smaller nation having to find reliable partner-nations to tap into for that internet access would inevitably lead to people ending up without access due to political games.

    Low orbit satellite constellations are the perfect candidate for sharing, they would literally sit unused over most of their orbits otherwise.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      I think every larger nation deploying their own constellation would reduce people losing access due to political games.

      If there’s only one network with the same topology as Starlink, then the USA, China, or Russia will end up making a bunch of rules on everyone else just like Elon does today. Look how the USA abuses centralized internet infrastructure already. Multiple overlapping systems would be wastefully redundant, but reduces the risk of censorship.

      We can’t get along and can’t have nice things.

      • Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 hours ago

        You want a truly multinational organization responsible for it, nothing that can be controlled by a single nation, even one as (ex)influential as the us.
        Something based on the UN perhaps.

        Combine that with making internet access a human right, to stop denying connectivity outright.

        Ideally then you could’t enforce meaningful censorship, but more realistically you would route regions to their respective governments servers so they could censor as before on their territory.
        That would not guarantee free access to the internet to everyone, but should be an acceptable compromise to basically all nations.

        After that, other doubting nations could still pull their own constellation, nothing is stopping that.

        I would love if the internet program was uncensored, but that probably needs personal circumvention same as now, if such a program wants any degree of success.

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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          7 hours ago

          It sounds like we don’t disagree that much, I just think other doubting nations is extremely likely.

          Edit: but gosh darn that is nice to imagine. Everyone, everywhere, having free internet.

          • Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            7 hours ago

            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.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    No thanks, demolish Leon Hitler’s space program and bury it. NASA should be the US leader for space missions and not a South African neo-Nazi sack of shit.

  • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    NOW they complain about giving Musk money?
    Most of the 38 billion was given by Biden.

  • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Lets reach a compromise. Impeach Trump (successfully) and then take away SpaceX from Elon. That way things would be fair.

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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      10 hours ago

      Trump has been impeached successfully. Twice. What I assume you mean is that he hasn’t been removed from office. That could be the consequence of an impeachment, but not necessarily.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        For whatever reasons Musk has found himself as ceo of some wildly successful visionary companies. It has not changed that they are finally bringing the future to the present, disrupting old technologies in favor of newer and better, for a better world. And the musk from before his breakdown deserves a lot of credit.

        At this point I no longer care about musk either, but SpaceX and Tesla are critical. Or at least SpaceX is. Tesla has not yet finished disrupting vehicle manufacturing , but if we’re content to let Chinese companies go ahead, they’re ready and willing. Legacy manufacturers have been slapped up the side of the face, but if they’re still not awake at this point it’s on them

        • hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz
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          9 hours ago

          I’m sorry, but credit for what? For being born privileged and buying talent? If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em, right?

          Yeah, I guess he deserves praise for being a good liar and basically selling pipe dreams?

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Tesla was started by a handful of really smart people with a great idea. Musk was ceo as it grew from an idea into the first new major automaker in almost a century. As it grew from a dismissed toy that no one would buy, into an industry-wide paradigm shift. Most of that time musk preached the gospel. You can’t disregard that influence, you can’t claim the guy in charge had nothing to do with it. You might decide his skill was more manipulative than visionary, but you can’t deny that him being the front man was part of the success. You might decide any engineering or problem solving ability was not real, but he was the guy in charge, he did make decisions, and Tesla has generally been a huge success (until recently).

            We just need some drug rehab and find a way to reset the god complex ….

            • hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz
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              8 hours ago

              Sure, I mean technically paypal was a rather innovative idea for its time, but again, the guy basically associated himself with smart people that had bright ideas.

              Yes, he does have a knack for growing businesses to a larger scale, but most millionaires/ billionaires do, cause they outsource brain matter and decision making to a select few.

              I’m not sure if I ever liked the guy or his largely exaggerated marketing, but being a POS nazi isn’t helping either, so i’m biased towards nazi hate I guess. Either way, he will need a paradigm shift for people to accept him back into the decent human beings club. I do hope he will find a way, but doubt it really.

              • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                6 hours ago

                I mostly hope that his companies make it back into the “disruptive technology” club, regardless of him.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          9 hours ago

          Sure, he gets credit for building hype and getting investors on board. He’s a decent salesman, and probably decent at business in general.

          I don’t care if he’s rich or not, he’s relatively harmless when it comes to things I care about. Trump, on the other hand, is dangerous because he seems to work off vibes and compliments, and that’s scary.

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
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    6 hours ago

    If we do, we’ll definitely reach mars. I can imagine it now! Its 3055 and everything is totally fine now that we can escape to Mars in an inflatable city. A whole 4000 square feet of freedom soaring thru the sky with the last of us aboard ready for a whole new life and a good 7 in inflated cities for our children to live. She changes her name to Mother Gaia and His name is now Adam. One day in the distant future perhaps a large meteor would come roaring and reshaping our planet into livable space again.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          7 hours ago

          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.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        I mean if we count bailouts as nationalization, then now we’ve got like some kinda national “socialism” where state and corporate power have fused.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          7 hours ago

          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.

  • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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    11 hours ago

    Just having such wealth and thus power in hands of singular humans is risk to all of humanity. With musk you are but big enough drug fueled temper tantrum away from pretty important infrastructure coming crashing down.