SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes 2014

originally posted by: TheBoomersRBusted
a reply to: MontyMoleClone

you mean like this?
www.youtube.com...

that sounded like a hefty shockwave, i would think something like that coming down in the middle of texas would be a big no no

screen.yahoo.com...

NASA ANNOUNCES THAT BOEING HAS WON SPACE-TAXI CONTEST - BYE BYE SPACEX
Elon Musk is great at publicity - he's had a hundred news-plants, teasers, tidbits and live-launch coverage to every one Press Release by Boeing. But, like his equally loudly heralded car, the Tesla, in the end people want "quality over loud, social media quantity".

Elon Musk' buds in the media were constantly playing up every test and launch by SpaceX. But there were always glitches, even with years between the tests and launches. And yet NASA inexplicably kept throwing millions of dollars in contracts at him.

I've speculated elsewhere that this is the real reason we don't use the gravity-cancelling TR-3B triangle to ferry our astronauts to and from the ISS: Throwing $60 million a seat to Russia to ferry our astronauts, and millions upon millions to Israeli Elon Musk's glitch-a-minute SpaceX, amounted to back-door foreign aid to these countries.

Hold back innovation and technical progress, and never mind that half the U.S. pays no taxes due to unemployment or poverty, but MAKE DARN SURE we prop up our Elitist friends in key countries!

a reply to: MKMoniker

But the "space-taxi" contract was awarded to BOTH Boeing and SpaceX. Granted, Boeing got the bigger chunk of the contract (~60% to Boeing; ~40% to SpaceX)., but considering SpaceX still ended up with a nice chunk of that contract makes me think that the U.S. wants SpaceX around and with enough incentive for SpaceX to continue their overall spacecraft development programs.


Boeing and SpaceX Win NASA’s ‘Space Taxi’ Contracts for Space Station Flights

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that Boeing and SpaceX have won the high stakes and history making NASA competition to build the first ever private ‘space taxis’ to launch American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and restore America’s capability to launch our crews from American soil for the first time since 2011...

...The ‘space taxi’ contract to build the Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon V2 spaceships is worth a total of $6.8 Billion, with the goal to end the nation’s sole source reliance on Russia in 2017. Boeing was awarded the larger share of the contract valued at $4.2 Billion while SpaceX was awarded a lesser amount valued at $2.6 Billion.

NASA Press release:

NASA Chooses American Companies to Transport U.S. Astronauts to International Space Station

The agency unveiled its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, with a goal of ending the nation’s sole reliance on Russia in 2017.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Not to mention the amount SpaceX got was exactly what they requested. Same for Boeing. SpaceX just thinks they can meet the requirements of the contract for a much lower price than Boeing.

Thanks for the comments. But I have to point out that this story "morph'ed" from the time I first posted it yesterday morning.

The original story I posted said that Boeing alone had "won the space taxi contest," and that smaller contracts MAY be announced later for SpaceX and other also-rans.

But by yesterday afternoon, the stories were all rewritten to include SpaceX getting half the space-taxi contract amount as Boeing got. So there is more going on here with SpaceX, NASA and this Administration than is immediately apparent.

a reply to: MKMoniker

Um no, I was following this from the start. As soon as they announced the contract they said SpaceX had won the smaller award. Nothing "morphed".

a reply to: MKMoniker

Here's a link to the original thread on this from September 16, the day that the "Space-Taxi" contract award was announced. That was more than two weeks ago. I remember reading that thread back then about Boeing and SpaceX splitting the contract (and did more subsequent reading on the subject after that), so that's why when I saw that you posted that SpaceX was out, I immediately knew the information in your post was not accurate.

ATS Thread -- NASA Selects Space X & Boeing to SPLIT $6.8 billion Commercial Space Taxi/Shuttle Replacement

There was plenty of news coverage two weeks ago about Boeing and SpaceX winning these contracts. Nothing morphed since then.


By the way, did you watch you own video that you linked? The video you linked even says that BOTH Boeing and SpaceX won contracts -- with Boeing winning the larger contract amount than SpaceX. The video does say that Boeing scored higher in a review of the proposals than SpaceX did, but it doesn't say that SpaceX was dropped.