Compared to NASA, SpaceX is developing at a breakneck pace. The SLS has its roots in the Constellation program from 2005 which itself came from the 2004 report “Vision for Space Exploration”. That was when NASA finally admitted the Shuttle was never going to live up to its original goals and it had to go.
Ares V is a reconfiguration of Shuttle hardware into a more traditional rocket. It’s still taken two decades and has one test launch to show for it.
SpaceX is the only Musk company I’ll defend, and it also seems to be the one that’s best at keeping Elon from fucking around with them internally.
That said, the whole point of commercial launch systems is that it’s not just one company doing it. Blue Origin might finally have something to show off soon, but there’s nobody else at a reasonable development level. Virgin Galactic only seems interested in space tourisim. (Edit: for completeness sake, I should also add that ULA is a joke.) A bunch of small companies are doing R&D, but few have even a single small launch yet. If it’s just going to be SpaceX, might as well make it a government-run company like the USPS.
Compared to NASA, SpaceX is developing at a breakneck pace. The SLS has its roots in the Constellation program from 2005 which itself came from the 2004 report “Vision for Space Exploration”. That was when NASA finally admitted the Shuttle was never going to live up to its original goals and it had to go.
Ares V is a reconfiguration of Shuttle hardware into a more traditional rocket. It’s still taken two decades and has one test launch to show for it.
SpaceX is the only Musk company I’ll defend, and it also seems to be the one that’s best at keeping Elon from fucking around with them internally.
That said, the whole point of commercial launch systems is that it’s not just one company doing it. Blue Origin might finally have something to show off soon, but there’s nobody else at a reasonable development level. Virgin Galactic only seems interested in space tourisim. (Edit: for completeness sake, I should also add that ULA is a joke.) A bunch of small companies are doing R&D, but few have even a single small launch yet. If it’s just going to be SpaceX, might as well make it a government-run company like the USPS.