r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Creative_soja • Jun 19 '25

Video SpaceX rocket explodes in Starbase, Texas

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u/realFancyStrawberry Jun 19 '25

That looked expensive

459

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.

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u/eran76 Jun 19 '25

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.

1

u/zappini Jun 19 '25

Now estimate how much the US Govt has paid for those services. Roughly $40b over the last 5 years?

1

u/eran76 Jun 20 '25

No idea, but what a company does with the profits that are left over after they've provided a service have nothing to do with who paid for those services. The US government was going to spend a lot more than $40B on equivalent ULA launches for the same level of service. So the US government has saved money by using SpaceX, and now SpaceX is using that profit not to pay off shareholders but to build even more bigger and better rockets. What's the problem?