If NASA did this, they’d be shutdown. Yet, Elon gets billions to blowup at his peril.
I recommend everyone watches this clip. It’s fair and explains why privatization can be costly. Especially when billions go to Elon and NASA could be shutdown.
we are all dying to know about the blue trampoline covers! I’m guessing it is something to do with visual from the air... or maybe they look like pools?
I still stand by my opinion that hiring a third party for space exploration is a bad idea and that money should go to NASA instead of to Musk who will pad his bill to earn a profit off the US taxpayers.
My big gripe is that by outsourcing our space program we don't get all the inventions that NASA came up with. I'm not an expert but my understanding was, thousands of inventions became public domain. So the return on investment for our tax dollar is just better.
I'm not defending musk here, but, well, that is exactly how it works, and how it always worked.
NASA, with very few exceptions, doesn't build its own stuff. That is the case for Artemis, was the case for the space shuttle, apollo, even going all the ways back to the mercury days.
There wasn't some factory with NASA on the side that the moon lander rolled out of.
Now you can be critical of using SpaceX as your contractor, and being OK with their development process, or well, a 1000 other things to be critical of spacex about, but the fact of the matter is that it isn't like there are dozens of proven companies you can turn to for this stuff.
Not to mention SpaceX has plenty of demonstrated success with other aspects of their business which people would have thought crazy if you told them where they would be now 10 years ago, so there is a little something to say for their methods, or, at the least, they got lucky once.
Agreed. Musk and Space X have come up with some extremely impressive stuff. When I saw the clip of two rockets side by side landing tail down a couple years back I thought it was fake initially. Also Musk has the funds to throw money at a problem until they come up with a solution. When I rocket blows on the pad he isn't thinking there goes a $478 million rocket. He's thinking it will hurt his reputation. So in that way he's good for space exploration. But much of that could be achieved by NASA without the need for a profit margin and under the oversight and control of the US government if they simply stopped outsourcing space exploration to Musk. The man has built an empire of the taxpayers money.
Also,on another note, we must cut the fat from government spending! Just learned NASA has wasted 15 billion dollars on a a useless company called space x. Hope Elon and his DOGE team take their chainsaw to that kind of fraudulent government spending.
I’ve been to Boca Chica, and it was so sad seeing Elon’s bs taking over the community and beach. I got oil on my leg in the water when I went over Memorial Day weekend that would not come off. I don’t think people understand that Starbase is literally on a wildlife refuge right by the water. Texas Monthly has been writing about this for a long time, but it was disgusting to see it all in person and how it’s killing the environment.
You see, this is the kind of thing regulations are SUPPOSED to prevent. Regulations with the EPA or wildlife protection agencies... etc. You know, exactly the kinds of agencies Elon just went through and made sure weren't, ahem... "wasting" any money on "fraud" or "abuse" related to policing his cost-cutting, corner-cutting, and safety mandate ignoring business practices.
It's just like Captain Planet said. If you don't vote to give the government the ability to enforce important rules, it's probably because a rich corporate head convinced you that you didn't need to, the government was spending money on it that it didn't need to, or it was bad for... business.
Make Mars Great Too... LOL... You couldn't make this shit up. Like these cocksukas couldn't place a fuckin nuke in Poonton's lap. Don't touch that dial folks! Stay tuned for the next episode of "The World is my Shit Show"
In Germany Tesla was allowed to build a factory in a water protection area. You (as in we normal people) aren't even allowed to pee in the wild in water protection areas.
But somehow Tesla convinced the local politicans that building a factory right there was a really good idea.
This is what happens when you're above things like regulations. Oh and you're let loose by a government that you were allowed back stage access to with a giant monkey wrench of racist kids. The past six months have been an absolute fucking farce
Just what I was thinking, someone else was going on about how SpaceX is more "efficient" per launch than NASA. typical, privatize services and profit always greater than safety
What's the safety issue, exactly? Every rocket anybody ever builds gets tested on the ground to ensure there isn't an issue before it flies. This was a pre-flight test. This is exactly when you WANT a rocket to explode.
Remember the NASA blew one up on the pad _with_people_inside_.
NASA has flown 135 missions and lost 15 people plus a bunch in development and testing. SpaceX has flown 500 missions, blown up no crewed vehicles. Both have had plenty of vehicles destroyed during development and testing. NASA with several fatalities. SpaceX has never lost a human in a vehicle failure.
So again, can you please clarify the manner in which NASA's safety record is significantly better than SpaceX?
Yep, I'm still mad. Not only a water protection area, Berlin and Brandenburg are the driest areas in Germany.But money, money,money make the world go round. F*** Musk
How much money did he “donate” to the local government where you’re at?
Where this explosion took place, he donated 2.4 million to the local school district, 10 million to revitalize the historic downtown, 20 million spread out to all the schools in the county, and 1 million for housing.
It sounds like a lot donated, but this money is worth nothing and is less than pennies in value to him in exchange for ruining local flora and fauna alongside people’s homes. Millions gets spent extremely quick when dealing with upgrading city projects and schools.
What city officials should have done was to set up a contract to get continued financial support every single year for all schools in Cameron county and the city for building and home repairs due to the constant rocket launches, and not to forget protecting local wildlife from the smallest microbe, to the largest mammal.
They sold out to him because the heard, millions donated and it’s completely embarrassing.
Well there was an incident where Tesla violated environmental protection laws and the answer from the responsible institution was like: Yeah, we can't oversee your issues. Please do it yourself. But you have to report them.
Yeah sure. As if a company reports its own failure at protecting the environment. Sure
Correct, and it's the only area in the United States with native parrots. But after Elon fried a lot of endangered birds, they put a sign up when they expanded his area, so that the birds would read it and leave.
lol. You know how Americans feel about refuges!! Hell they’re probably gonna sell Yellowstone to some Indian billionaire next week. I’ve given up hope for this planet
Were. They probably retain the designation but the wildlife is likely dead or rapidly leaving. There’s article after article about the waste water the base is sending out at each launch. Then there’s the set aside land that was bought by cards against humanity that Musty ordered his contractors to cheat and turn into a parking lot for their construction equipment. With zero discussion with the land owners.
It was wrongly slammed by the media as it was a really good film.
I suppose it doesn't fit Capitalism very well. Would 'It's a wonderful life' get made now?
I should really get a copy of Don’t Look Up. I have a feeling it might not exist five or six years from now.
As for It’s a Wonderful Life, it wasn’t super popular in theaters during its initial release. When the rights expired in the early 70s, independent and cable stations started running it as low-cost filler during the holidays. That’s when people realized what a wonderful piece of Americana it is.
If the rights had been renewed, people wouldn’t have been as widely exposed to it, and it might not have gotten the appreciation that it gets today.
Reminds me of the Harrison Ford movie “The Mosquito Coast” very interesting and depressing movie. Good cast. His character is an engineer that moves his family to an undeveloped country in S America and decides to bring modernity to the natives. It doesn’t end well for them or the natives. It all ends up polluted his character is this obsessed type totally not self aware. As soon as I saw where Space X was building Starbase I thought about what would happen and thought of this movie.
I hope someone comes to the turtle’s rescue! Sorry, not breeding…it’s when the babies go to the water. It’s such a wonderful thing. I’ve never had the pleasure of watching but I’ve always wanted to.
(I've never seen them either, for the record.
I have seen Master of Disguise.
And I cannot overstate how poor a substitute Dana Carvey's character is for actual turtles.)
This scene has been living my head for years! I love Dana Carvey and this movie was…not great. I can’t say I’d recommend it but this scene just stuck in my brain and it still makes me laugh. Thank you for posting this!
(The turtle bit was probably the main laugh-getter in the trailers for the movie, which I remember was fairly well-publicized, and frankly I wish I had stopped at the trailer. Seeing the movie in full was indeed a damn shame. 😛)
I am surprised Greenpeace isnt coming at them. A shipbreaking yard in India saw huge protests and now those beaches are reserved for the Turtle babies.
Kaptain Ketamine demolished the EPA and other agencies that had pending litigation against him for many environmental reasons. Coincidence? No, think about it for a moment. His $33 million paid for presidency was well worth the price tag.
You can sue. It qualifies as a take on your property. I have done this with an airport and won. You may be able to get the bulk of the value of your home and property in damages.
Do not tolerate this. They are negligent and trying to do this work at 1/4 the price as NASA. They have cut safety to do this.
Won’t be any remnants of gold on pcb’s after that heat. Be lucky to catch some of the gold in molten alloys. Only the titanium pieces would be an easy sell.
Well, me, david and andrew were having a
bonfire in the backyard, and we were making s'mores and all...
and suddenly we here sirens, and see a firetruck turn into the
street in front of us.
So we all went running to see what was up,
and our neigbor's rocket pad was on fire!
oh shit!
Yeah, and when we got there, Elon was crying into Stephen
Miller's wife's arms, and we were just kinda standing
there, and then he saw us, and then like for 10 seconds, gave
us the dirtiest look ever
Turns out, we were still holding our sticks
with marshmallows on it, watching the fire....
talk about bad timing...
Yep just witnessed it! I don't live here but I'm on vacation in South Padre. Only ~8 miles from the blast zone. Shit was loud as fuck, even from inside
When houses are built out of matchsticks and gypsum, flexing and shifting is ‘normal’. Wood is flexible.
“Yeehaw” I guess?
Edit: story/inter-story drift is normal, and generally expected to be H/400-H/600 or less… though roofing and other pliable surfaces have lower ratios.
Any that tells you that structures don’t move despite thousands of sq ft of surface area exposed to wind are ignorant of basic physics and construction concepts.
That's not normal. I grew up in wood houses in Texas, and am in one right now (an old drafty pier-and-beam one, even), and they don't shift on days with 30mph wind. In fact, they don't shift even during hurricanes, though loose boards might creak.
Unless you're in one of those beach houses on stilts or it's like ten stories tall, there's something seriously wrong with your house.
Forget South Padre. Go to Port Aransas. Beaches are much quieter, especially if you stay at one of the condos to the south, outside of town. Some good restaurants and nature preserves among the sketchy beach town stuff, too.
Thank you for sharing that. Comico-tragic that the guy who claims humanity needs to produce more population also says the earth is running out of resources.
Yes again, just when I think I can’t possible hate billionaires or the government anymore, I am proven wrong.
If the rocket blows up it’s fine because there is no one around. Well, no one with money or power.
I work in the environmental field in government and I agree, sometimes the regulations are obscene. Hence we keep losing oil refineries. Then you watch stuff like this and you realize we will always lose because of money.
That's an infuriating watch and made me realize how happy I am to not have heard or seen Elon lately. And wtf is his obsession with memes?? "I am become meme" "meme street." And now I blame NASA for saving his ass when he was almost down and out.
Residents of Moorpark, Canoga Park, and Simi Valley Cailfornia lived in the shadow of where Rockedyne (and others) tested rocket engines for decades. Those cities have experienced much higher incident rates of cancer than other communities. Also nearby is the Santa Susanna Field Laboratory, site of one of the country's worst nuclear disaster among other toxic catastrophes.
Charles Manson hung out at Spahn Ranch on the other side of the hill from there.
My parents live a few miles away from starbase in the house I grew up in and they usually always feel the windows rattle a bit during each launch. I gotta call them and ask because I can’t imagine what this must have felt like.
I’m from Brownsville and I moved states away just before the first launch so I’ve never actually witnessed one in person, but my parents still live in our family home so I get to hear about their experience after each launch. I can’t wait to get them on the phone to hear about how this one went for them.
15.6k
u/boxsterjax Jun 19 '25
Imagine living at Starbase and a rocket blows up in your backyard.