Weird way of looking at it. Was Roscosmos “America’s space program” when they were selling the rides?

Currently SpaceX makes up 90% of global launch mass in the past year. It may as well be the western world’s space program pretty soon, with China and Russia only launching their own military payloads.

What I was really driving at was that some are using the wrong definition of "space program." It's a good thing that space transportation is becoming a reliable service or utility, but that's something quite different than being the space program. If we came to think of launch as a very large part of what constitutes a space program, that's only because we allowed the costs of launch to become entirely too high, such that it dominated budgets.

No. They were just the rescue (to stay on theme) for America's space program.

Kinda is, and it’s all Elon’s fault.

Or perhaps blame Boeing and NASA, rather than the single competent organisation that's managing to hold the whole damned thing together.

I meant to give Elon credit for being able to deliver a viable program where nobody else can.

Why not both?

I think it's both the incompetence of the incumbents, and the impressive work of SpaceX that got us to where we are. With the vast majority of companies, especially tech companies, I think the leadership gets far too much credit. In most organizations I have been a part of, they succeed in spite of the leadership, not because of it.

In the case of SpaceX though, I am less sure. Reading the Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk was quite fascinating and illuminating about his leadership style. I would never work for him myself, but he does have some really fascinating philosophies.

I actually don't know what we're arguing, since I already misinterpreted the dude that I responded to, but there's no one else that could have done this.

No-one would've believed it possible, no-one even conceived of the notion that it was worth while to try.

And there's not another billionaire around who'd've been willing to bet the house on it.

I don't know how much of a roll he had in the designs (other than "make it pointy") but the fact remains that he's the man who built the team that somehow managed to achieve the hitherto impossible.

My biggest concern with him is that he's pushing a pace that in some cases will go beyond the point of diminishing returns, and even beyond that into the territory that invites burnout.

When you're building teams of the best minds on earth, you probably don't want to be burning through them like candles.

> Kinda is, and it’s all Elon’s fault.

Not sure what you mean by that. Are you suggesting that Elon/SpaceX sabotaged Boeing Starliner program? Because it seems pretty obvious that Boeing did that all on their own.

I mean to give Elon credit for being able to deliver a viable program where nobody else can.