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Comment by evoxed | Hacker News Reader

> As part of the program NASA has invested $381 million in SpaceX. Musk didn’t give a specific number, but he estimated the SpaceX program has cost around $1 billion in total to date.

I didn't realize NASA had so much stake in SpaceX. Musk started it with ~$100M IIRC, though I thought he contributed much more since. A quick search didn't turn up the number I was looking for so I'll just monitor the posts here...

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I don't think NASA holds shares in SpaceX - the word "invested" is wrong here.

I think what the article meant to say is NASA has awarded SpaceX $381m in contracts and development awards (through the COTS and CCDev programs).

Right. I shouldn't have continued the implication, but in a generic sense their stake is still valued at $380 (with perhaps some recoverable if Elon Musk suddenly disappears and SpaceX creates the Blob or something). I guess I was distracted thinking about the upcoming IPO. Last I heard was 2013Q1.

I think "invest" is the correct word. In the context of the financial industry, "invest" usually implies that you have purchased actual stock in a company. But in general, the word means that you have committed something of value to someone else, and hence, your well-being is tied to theirs. We also say that a teacher is invested in their students success because they have committed their time and effort to help those people succeed. In this circumstance, NASA has given SpaceX money, and if SpaceX does not succeed, that will hurt NASA. If SpaceX does succeed, that will help NASA. NASA could have, instead, used that $381 million to try to do it themselves; that money is now gone, and if SpaceX fails, NASA won't get a do-over. For those reasons, I think it's accurate to say to then say that NASA is invested in SpaceX.

Right. It's technically correct but it's misleading.

Again, I disagree. I think most people will understand it in the way I said above, because for most people, "invest" does not imply "bought shares of." Because of your involvement in the startup community, you tend to assume a specialized definition of "invest" rather than the general definition that most people assume.

99 times out of 100 (at least) on Hacker News, "invest" connotes an actual ownership share.

Which is related to what I said about being plugged into the startup community. This article, however, appeared in Wired, which is a more general magazine.

They developed three rockets and a reusable vessel for $1 billion? That's impressive!!

Now I totally see Facebook's $1B buyout of that photo-sharing iPhone app for hipsters as being reasonable.

Wait a minute.

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