this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
34 points (78.3% liked)
SpaceflightMemes
730 readers
45 users here now
A Lemmy analogue to r/SpaceXMasterRace.
Related communities for serious posts and discussion.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
And the same week as 5 Falcons
Still hilarious to have “theelonmusketeers” posting memes making fun of Blue right after SpaceX has a high profile RUD
Honestly, spaceX fans taking issue with Blue is a bit silly in general. There’s plenty of market demand to go around and more suppliers could only help the future of human space flight
I'm fine with more suppliers hitting the market, especially if they're working on reuse. New Glenn 1st stage reuse will be helpful if they can get it working. Same with Neutron. And Stoke Nova full reuse.
My issues with BO are more about their whole "business" model being noncompetitive, either through lawsuits or the megabillionaire owner paying for everything and underbidding and winning contracts that should go to real companies, like Rocket Lab, Stoke, Astrobotic, etc.
Say what you want about this, but most major government procurement contracts involve some sort of legal battles. Kinda the name of the game. I was working the contract on the NASA side when it happened and the space enthusiasts blew it way out of proportion.
You mean, like, how SpaceX underbid for HLS?
In any case, this is just plain wrong. Blue generates bids that they expect to turn a profit, they just have far better facilities and economies of scale than everyone else besides SpaceX.
I understand that some level of contract protests and lawfare is normal. I think their actions like patent and launch pad disputes that just slow down the competition leave a bad taste. Their HLS infographic era was pretty pathetic. Selling ULA engines then turning around and competing with them was underhanded (but predictable). And, personally, without getting into details, they were a pain to deal with when I worked at a component subcontractor.
I think my feeling in general is just that they've talked so much big game for so long for no good reason and are just annoying and hard for me to root for.
SpaceX underbidding HLS is a murky one, because they were developing Starship already. There's no way BO was building their HLS without the contract.
On the ULA engine topic, New Glenn was announced and BE-4 was under development years before they won the contract with ULA