NASA culture and constraints vs. SpaceX

[rabar10]

(Split from the Why not the moon? thread)

NASA is awesome, but don't put too much stock in to everyone there. Even the higher ups say things are not possible that we are working on and making happen. They look at the universe through the eyes of the Government. SpaceX takes a very different approach.

If public companies have to dance to quarterly numbers, then NASA has to dance to quadrennial budgets.
Certain private companies get to dance to Elon's jingling pocket-change

 

[Bencredible]

If public companies have to dance to quarterly numbers, then NASA has to dance to quadrennial budgets.
Certain private companies get to dance to Elon's jingling pocket-change
(admittedly going off-topic)

Trying not to drive too far OT, but NASA has to dance to a lot more than just budgets. Politics tend to get in the way of their innovation. The NASA engineers can be great, but I have found more than one beaten down by years of working for the agency. IMO SpaceX today is what NASA was in the Apollo era. There is a very good reason Elon won't take us public until we're at Mars or at least have it in our sights

 

[rabar10]

No OT worries -- the topic is interesting so it has it's own thread now. :biggrin:

 

[HVM]

Interesting video series of The Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems and differences between SpaceX and NASA R&D.

"Dr. Dan Rasky worked as a Senior Scientist for NASA on COTS. Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) was a NASA-industry partnership to develop safe, affordable, reliable space transportation access to Low-Earth Orbit. NASA was the lead investor in the COTS project, much different from traditional government-owned and operated systems. The COTS lessons are applicable to similar capability development projects and may not be suitable for traditional government contracts."

COTS: Dan Rasky - YouTube

 

[Grendal]

That was a very cool set of videos. It really explains how SpaceX (and for that matter Tesla) can really compete and win against the old school companies.