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Comment by antfie | Hacker News Reader

The last rocket blew up and now they need more money to build another?

This is why it’s a good thing it’s staying private, public investors would focus only on the high profile explosions of a test vehicle rather than on the fact that SpaceX has a 99.3% mission success rate, the record for the most launches in a year, the only company to have reusable first stage in use, and the only way for American astronauts to reach orbit in the current geopolitical climate, all of this at a fraction of the cost of competitors.

Even if it hadn't blown up, it would've been destroyed as part of the flight plan. Just by high-speed impact with the water in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Hawaii rather than by flight termination system.

This is why governments don't build rockets any more.

"Experimental test rocket blew up", yea, they tend to do that.

People pretending "move fast and break things" is a given in this field. SLS first launched in 2022 and not only reached space but flew around the moon and dropped off some satellites. Very first launch, no giant explosions. Don't get me wrong, SpaceX is incredible and will figure this out, but it's not at all obvious their approach to making a giant rocket is faster or more efficient than what the conventional players have done in the past. Each step, reaching orbit, the moon, Mars, is huge step that comes with new challenges.

With SLS having a cost per kg to orbit about 10x that of Falcon Heavy, this isn't particularly convincing evidence that "move fast and break things" is the wrong approach though.

And Starship promises another 10x (_after_ already applying a 3x "Musk exaggerating multiplier") improvement.

And how many billions of dollars did that single SLS rocket cost. How much will the one after that cost? And the one after that, wait, they aren't building but a few at a few billion each. The giant rockets before then were built with a percentage of the national GDP.

At the end of the day spaceX will come in way cheaper per rocket in total and it will be reusable.

They have seven boosters under construction, three of which are already undergoing engine installation. If they need more money it’s for more than just one more rocket.

it's a tender offer, more likely the purpose is to allow employees to cash out some of their shares without having to IPO

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