The cynicism in this thread is really something else. Most people here are so eager to see the brand fail that they’re completely ignoring the actual engineering happening right in front of us.
The "taxpayer funded" talking point is factually stuck in the past. NASA contracts make up maybe 5% of SpaceX's revenue this year. The vast majority of their funding comes from Starlink and commercial launches. Those "explosions" are being paid for by their own $8 billion in annual profit, not our taxes. If you want to talk about taxpayer waste, look at the SLS. It costs $4 billion per launch and only flies once every few years. That's equivalent to $25 from every tax payer for each SLS launch.
As for the Saturn comparisons, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of modern aerospace. Saturn was a one-shot, hand-built government trophy. Starship is a mass-producible freight system. The Raptor V3 is hitting double the thrust of the original at a fraction of the cost. You don't get that kind of evolution by being "perfect" every time, you get it by testing to failure and iterating.
The focus on the Moon isn't a "scam" or a pivot, it’s a literal contractual obligation for Artemis. Beyond the legal side, it makes perfect sense. You can iterate on the Moon every couple of weeks, whereas Mars launch windows only open every 26 months.
SpaceX is valued at $1.5 trillion and is prepping for a massive IPO. They’re launching more mass into orbit than the rest of the world combined. Whatever people feel about the xAI merger or the CEO’s politics, the actual company is a decade ahead of everyone else.
But the most telling part of this discussion is seeing a comment cheering on "another taxpayer funded explosion" getting 14 upvotes. In a community that’s supposed to be progressive and "pro-science" rewarding a claim that is not only factually dead wrong, but just pretty disgusting in general, just because it fits a political narrative is the definition of an echo chamber. You aren't rooting against waste, you're just rooting against progress because you don't like the guy behind it.
