Space X Struggling.....

More evidence that turning the US Space Program over to private sector was a poorly thought out idea.

In Sept the Space X Rocket exploded on the pad. That cost Elon millions of dollars. Elon had to pay for the Rocket, the satellite, and the charred launch pad.

Space X only has a few corporate clients. Their biggest client wasn’t impressed by Elons display (or confident Elon would get it all corrected) so they went and hired the Europeans to launch their next satellite. Better to go with the professionals.

Now Elon is panicking and wants to launch his next rocket in January. He wants to do this even though he isn’t completely sure why the rocket in Sept blew up like a fire cracker.

See private companies need to make a profit. NASA does not need to make a profit. When NASA has an issue there is no financial pressure to speed things along. Elon has lots of pressure..... which leads to rushing....... which leads to explosions.

The space Shuttle was retired in 2011. Elon was supposed to have astronauts back in space by August 2017. That date is quickly approaching and Elon is nowhere near ready for the big leagues. As a result that date has now been moved to Dec 2018. You can be sure that date will be moving again. Nobody is going to be real anxious to get on top of Elons Roman Candle Rockets.

Last week we honored John Glenn. Basically what Elon is trying to do is what John did successfully 54 years ago. Elon has to relearn what NASA already knew.

In the space business in 2016 what John Glenn did is considered childs play. But Elon is still years away from accomplishing it.

In 2018 the Russians stop giving Americans lifts into space and then we are truly out of luck. Then we are completely depending on Elon whether he is ready or not. My prediction is he won’t be ready.

They should have just left NASA to do this.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/what-s-hold-spacex-n695001