RE: Another Private Company Doing what NASA can't do

[funbobby51]

Friday’s crash of Virgin Galactic’s spaceship is a setback for Spaceport America, the $218.5 million facility that New Mexico taxpayers funded in southern New Mexico.

https://www.watchdog.org/national/can-spaceport-america-recover-or-was-taxpayers-money-lost-in/article_5861d0d3-96f9-5425-bfb5-ecb039f98f98.html

Probably more since then. They haven't been flying the regular sub orbital passenger flights have they?

Comments

[everittdmickey]

by the way.
virgin galactic made a successful test flight just recently

[funbobby51]

and how many of these people have flown?

As of February 2011, Virgin Galactic has accepted over 400 reservations and collected $50 million in deposits.[45]

seems a bit behind schedule but no matter the state of NM and local municipalities taxpayers are on the hook

[everittdmickey]

another strawman
did anyone force the state of NewMexico or the local municipalites to invest?
I'd suspect that it's a high risk investment.
High Risk investments have a high risk of failure..also the possibillity of high rewards.

[funbobby51]

they shift the risk onto the taxpayers. Politicians are spending other people's money so they tend to be terrible custodians of it.

[everittdmickey]

can't argue that.

[everittdmickey]

• Another billionaire, Elon Musk, signed a three-year lease last year with Spaceport to test reusable rockets for his SpaceX venture and, according to Anderson, has already spent $2 million in infrastructure improvements.

You reckon the lease requires payments?

• UP Aerospace is also a paying customer at Spaceport and, just days before the Virgin Galactic accident, a Tucson-based company called World View Enterprises, entered negotiations with Spaceport officials. World View intends on sending customers 20 miles into the stratosphere in cutting-edge balloons.

So...there are three customers mentioned...one might have some problems paying the rent..

Is that right?

[funbobby51]

2 million of improvements to a 200+ million dollar taxpayer funded facility, that's lovely.
have taxpayers recouped their $200+ million yet?
So how much of what Musk pays towards his lease comes from taxpayers?
did 500 jobs paying an average of $100,000 materialize?

[everittdmickey]

pay attention.
the 500 jobs is referring to the BrownsVille facility.
I don't know if ANY taxpayer money was involved there.

[everittdmickey]

You don't know the difference between SpaceX (which we've been discussing) and Virgin Galactic?

[funbobby51]

I don't know why you are saying that.

[everittdmickey]

read your responses...I was speaking of SpaceX..you were referring to Virgin Galactic.

[funbobby51]

The article was about Virgin but then you asked me about Musk, seemed like we were talking about both.