Tracking Wealth Through the AI Lens
Tracking Wealth Through the AI Lens
Okay, so SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites. Big deal. They do it every freakin' week, right? Two launches in one weekend? Yawn. I'm supposed to be impressed that they're clogging up low Earth orbit with more space junk so Elon can beam internet to people who can afford it?
What I am impressed by is their marketing department's ability to spin this as some kind of groundbreaking achievement. "SpaceX headed into the weekend with a pair of launches planned for Florida’s Space Coast..." Oh, they headed into it? Like it was some spontaneous road trip? Give me a break.
And don't even get me started on the "reusable" rockets. Yeah, B1092 flew for an eighth time. So what? They slap some new paint on it, call it "flight-proven," and expect us to throw a parade? It's like bragging about driving the same beat-up Honda Civic for ten years. Sure, it's economical, but it ain't exactly innovative. This was the 132nd landing on this vessel and the 533rd booster landing to date for SpaceX.
They landed on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. Gravitas? Really? Where's the gravitas in mass-producing orbital pollution?
The other launch, the one from California, was even more insulting. A "government-contracted mission" to deliver a weather satellite. Oh, how noble! Except, let's be real, SpaceX is raking in billions from Uncle Sam. It's not charity; it's a business transaction. And we, the taxpayers, are footing the bill.
Speaking of government contracts, did you see what happened with Blue Origin? Their New Glenn rocket got delayed again, this time because of a solar storm. A solar storm! You'd think Jeff Bezos could afford some kind of cosmic ray shield for his rockets, but apparently not.
"Due to highly elevated solar activity and its potential effects on the ESCAPADE spacecraft, NASA is postponing launch until space weather conditions improve," Blue Origin said... Excuses, excuses. Maybe if they spent less time building phallic-shaped rockets and more time on, you know, actual engineering, they wouldn't be getting owned by the sun. According to Did solar storm force New Glenn scrub? Blue Origin postpones rocket launch again, the launch was postponed due to potential effects on the ESCAPADE spacecraft.
It's always something with those guys, ain't it? One minute they're promising trips to Mars, the next they're blaming the weather.
Oh, and get this: the California launch almost didn't happen because of some stupid federal curfew. A curfew on rocket launches? What is this, a freaking kindergarten? Apparently, it was meant to ease the strain of the government shutdown, but it's still in effect? So, bureaucracy trumps space exploration. Got it.
Want to watch the spacecraft thunder into the sky and soar high above Earth's atmosphere? Seriously? They are selling us the same dream over and over.
SpaceX conducts many of its own rocket launches, most using the Falcon 9 rocket, from California and Florida. That includes a regular cadence of deliveries of Starlink internet satellites into orbit, and occasional privately funded commercial crewed missions on the Dragon – the only U.S vehicle capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station.
And, offcourse, they benefit from billions of dollars in contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense by providing launch services for classified satellites and other payloads. So, they are basically a government contractor with a cool logo.