30 Accidents And Fails That Made People Cringe And Think: “Well, That Looked Expensive” (New Pics)

Conflict of interest? Certainly - but ... SpaceX's launchers are much cheaper than the competition, and you don't really think that the competition got their government contracts without an awful lot of influencing of politicians, do you? The whole thing is a mess of corruption, but at least SpaceX is reducing costs.

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Tamra, can you really claim that but for his role in DOGE, he wouldn't get the contracts? No-one could possibly claim he doesn't provide the most certain success for a fraction of the cost of his competition! How is it that you're less concerned with the blatantly political attempts to lock him out of Biden-era government contracts for his politics? Why not look to the FDA and CDC officials who have collectively made billions of dollars "advising" the d**g companies they regulate?

The idea that Biden's administration tried to lock Musk out of government contracts sounds like the sort of crazy conspiracy theory Marjorie Taylor Greene would come up with. SpaceX has loads of US government contracts and makes loads of money from launching government payloads - locked out? Quite the opposite. SpaceX is getting fat feeding on the taxpayer's money - thanks in part to Biden.

The FDA and CDC conversation is a different topic. On the topic of Musk: federal law bars executive branch employees, which can include unpaid consultants from participating in government matters that will affect their financial interests, unless they divest of their interests or recuse themselves. Musk has ongoing governmental contracts that net him billions of dollars. He has not recused himself in any way as of yet.

SpaceX's launchers are *hugely* cheaper than anything that's come before when it comes to price per kilo to orbit. They're also - at least in part - reusable. And that's good not just because it keeps the costs down, but also because there are fewer huge lumps of highly engineered rocket booster falling back to Earth potentially hitting who knows what. Cheap access to space is good because it means more people can do more good things in orbit. Earth observation satellites are incredibly useful for all sorts of things - planning agriculture, disaster management, weather forecasting, and that's just the headline stuff. Cheap space access opens up that sort of thing to more people in more countries; even university students get to take part in real space missions. Also more nations get to field spy satellites and they make the world safer too: the more any government knows about what its potential enemies are *really* doing, the less paranoid they are.

Thank you Forrest Hobbs. Appreciate the time you've taken.

Yep, the algorithms and bots aren't at all directing the conversation on Twatter. All he's done is turn 'X' into a cesspit of hate. 'Free speech' is not what he's providing. People's views get shut down and controlled still. Besides, changing your views just to get your own way, really doesn't make someone the good guy. Also, it wasn't HIM that came up with a damned bloody thing. Buying skills, genius and talent, doesn't make hiim the smart guy. He's stoking division and hate. He should mind his own business as to what other countries are doing as well. Repugnant individual.

Musk re 'X' “Over the last few months, we’ve witnessed the power of X in shaping national conversations and outcomes..." Free speech my effing-a**e. How are people so deluded???

Musks supports whoever he thinks will get him his own way, that's not something to praise. He wanted control, Trump has given too much to him. I love reading Musk supporters who are deluded into thinking he's a) full of great ideas and talent (when it's bought by him and b) that he cares about anything other than gaining power. As for free speech - the amount of control he's exercising on Twitter is disgusting. People lose followers, get their posts limited, get banned from posting - just because those comments don't follow HIS guidelines. I know this from my own experience and that of people I follow. That's a million miles away from free speech. He's power hungry and dangerous. His cleverness lies in his ability to buy the right business and talent and manipulating fools into believing his faux outrage about whatever bandwagon he's jumping on. Too many fools who fall for it.

😂 Musk has always been a die-hard exploitative capitalist and has done nothing to end carbon-fuel dependency. He did buy an electric car firm, but you see, electric cars need charging and in any case, Tesla's key innovations all predated Musk buying the company. He's no engineer - all the development work is done by the firm's employees. Your remarks about "socialism" and "free speech" are even more absurd than your claim that Musk's done something to get away from carbon fuel dependency.

Eh, he might be a kid, too. Either way, it's a lot to explain!

Yeah, I'm no teacher so he can go educate himself!

Aww, thanks! I don't know why people downvote jokes they don't get. Maybe they didn't realise it was supposed to be a joke.

Don't get the joke at all - maybe it's a bit too country specific? But I upvoted you anyway!