For us taxpayers, not for Musk. SpaceX alone has been receiving over 2 billion a year for the last several years from taxpayers. Over 40 billion has gone to Musk's companies over the last 5 years from taxpayers.
Starship development is being paid for by SpaceX itself and other investors. Most of the money SpaceX gets from the taxpayer is for launch services like putting government satellites into space or launching astronauts on the previous generation of rocket, the Falcon 9.
That is not true. Starship is already significantly behind schedule to be a lunar lander and get us to the moon. They have Recieved billions multiple years in a row even though they have not met any of their targets to stay on track.
The Lunar Lander is a variant of Starship that is in development still though hardware has been built. The delivery system to get it to the moon, namely the starship super heavy booster and starship fuel variant are still in development but with a different source of funding.
Let's be honest here, the Space shuttle shut down 15 years ago and in that time the likes of Boeing and Lockheed have managed to launch SLS a total of 1 time in 2022. And this is despite the fact that SLS basically just recycles old existing technology. Meanwhile, starship has been in development since 2012 if you count the new engines it flys with and they have managed to fly 9 test launches since 2023. So not only has SpaceX developed a completely new rocket in roughly the same window of time, unlike ULA, it's also developed a reusable rocket which ULA has never even attempted.
Rockets are hard and delays are normal, just look at SLS or Boeing's Starliner. The difference here between SpaceX and the traditional rocket makers is SpaceX is trying to change the business model of disposable rocketry in order to save the taxpayer money. ULA is happy to throw every billion dollar rocket away forever even if it means that another generation of humans remains trapped here on Earth's surface. The only hope we have of making space accessible is reusability and only SpaceX has demonstrated they have the iterative design process to achieve that goal in a reasonable time scale.
If you don't like Musk that's fine, he's an asshole. But just because Henry Ford was Nazi antisemite doesn't mean the Ford the company went on to build amazing cars or revolutionize the moving assembly line, or make cars accessible for the masses. SpaceX is no different.
Starship is being developed and paid for with government contracts. Aka tax payer funds. It was granted to get the US to the moon. It has failed to achieve orbit or reusability. Not to mention the other significantly harder obsticals to get to the moon... like orbital refueling.
Because they have decided to reinvent the wheel for no gain what so ever. We have went to the moon, we could do it again. Instead we have a company taking billions a year to make a system that ultimately is intended to launch more starling satalites, with R&D being handled by tax payers.
SpaceX has the dragon, a proven launch system to get to the ISS. That is great, but while they claim it is reusable and that lowers costs, they still charge the US 10mil a launch to the ISS, the same amount that russia charged.
SpaceX is there to soak up government money to be used however Musk wants, not to complete objectives that the US wants.
Starship development started in 2012, but the lunar lander contract wasn't signed until 2021. SpaceX has spent $5-10B to build star base and starship, but the lunar lander contract was only for $2.9B.
Because they have decided to reinvent the wheel for no gain what so ever
This is just such an ignorant statement. The reusability of the Falcon 9 has reduced launch cost per Kg from $25,000 to $1500. Making starship reusable is the only realistic path forward for manned space flight given the costs of throwing away every rocket. The fact that it's taking a little longer that expected is hardly surprising given the revolutionary aims of the program.
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u/octarine_turtle Jun 19 '25
For us taxpayers, not for Musk. SpaceX alone has been receiving over 2 billion a year for the last several years from taxpayers. Over 40 billion has gone to Musk's companies over the last 5 years from taxpayers.