We should just fund NASA and let SpaceX and Starlink go bankrupt to competitors.
We Should Immediately Nationalize SpaceX and Starlink
Submitted 10 months ago by Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://jacobin.com/2025/06/musk-trump-nationalize-spacex-starlink
Comments
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
SpaceX and Starlink basically have no competition, and if they did, said competitor would also need to be heavily subsidized.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
These last few years they’ve had very little successes, but the point is it should stay competitive and not be automatically handed to these doofuses. Even the USSR maintained a competitive rocketry sector.
ikidd@lemmy.world 10 months ago
NASA hasn’t take the slightest risk since Challenger. They wouldn’t have accomplished 1/20th of the launch capability SpaceX has developed in the last 5 years.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Generally NASA doesn’t “develop” rockets per se, they commission rockets to specification.
RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world 10 months ago
SpaceX has loads of capable engineers. If NASA gets a massive budget increase, they need to draw from that pool of talent.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world 10 months ago
NOW they complain about giving Musk money?
Most of the 38 billion was given by Biden.AppleTea@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
imagine how many more rockets we could reuse if the NASA subdivision formerly known as SpaceX did literally any of the standard, rigorous fault-checks.
Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 10 months ago
No thanks, demolish Leon Hitler’s space program and bury it. NASA should be the US leader for space missions and not a South African neo-Nazi sack of shit.
MyOpinion@lemmy.today 10 months ago
Step one Musk needs to be arrested and sent to El Salvador.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 10 months ago
No thanks. We need to shut down all U.S. affiliation with prisons outside the U.S. Release those prisoners or transfer them back to the U.S. and have proper trials. Trump needs to stand trial for the fake electors and for every unconstitutional measure he has done before/since as an unconstitutional act that the Supreme Court deems unconstitutional should not be considered an official act. The President should be suspended from all duties until Congress performa an investigation draws up the articles of impeachment and it is tried by the Senate.
Musk should be tried for election interference and any other laws he may have broken but it should be done right here in the U.S. If anything freeze all of his accounts and require him to step down from any/all roles within his companies as part of his required bale terms, or otherwise he would be choosing to spend the time awaiting trial in jail.
These actions would ensure they aren’t trying to drag court cases out for years, they would want the court cases to move along faster.
Would Trump get convicted by the Senate, unlikely. That’s on us for voting terrible people into the legislative branch. But we can’t complain about those who break the law if we think it’s fine to break the law when it fits our wants. We need to update those laws legally or tear the whole thing down and say Musk and Trump didn’t break any laws because we didn’t think those laws mattered as well.
altphoto@lemmy.today 10 months ago
If we do, we’ll definitely reach mars. I can imagine it now! Its 3055 and everything is totally fine now that we can escape to Mars in an inflatable city. A whole 4000 square feet of freedom soaring thru the sky with the last of us aboard ready for a whole new life and a good 7 in inflated cities for our children to live. She changes her name to Mother Gaia and His name is now Adam. One day in the distant future perhaps a large meteor would come roaring and reshaping our planet into livable space again.
Grizzlyboy@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
I don’t think the majority of Americans understand what that means. They’ll just scream “commies!” And raise their maga flag.
But the idea of a starlink-like business owned by UN would be nice, and not an American corporation owned by a nepobaby Elmo.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 10 months ago
Then the UN should start their own starlink-like company. Nothing is stopping them.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 10 months ago
In an ideal world, starlink should be internationalized by the U.N.
We don’t need half a dozen companies in every developed nation putting their own garbage in orbit just to provide rural internet for a minority of a minority of the planet. Those systems are in orbit, they can provide internet to the overwhelming majority of humans.
But instead we’re gonna fuck up our ability to use a load of space telescopes needed to help see potentially dangerous asteroids, and all these satellites burning up in orbit are gonna fuck up the atmosphere, opening up the hole in the ozone layer even more.
Tillman@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Can you imagine who would run those companies if they were government owned?
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Yeah. A gov; be it the UN or a country.
Having worked and then contracted to regional and Muni govs, and worked for dotcoms, I can tell you one of them follows way, WAY more of the regs than the other.
It’s like transpo & highways vs private roads and rail: one of them is way better-maintained when there is a comparison.
sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
You should familiarize yourself with Telsat Canada’s LEO plans. Should be complete in less than 2 years.
ikidd@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They say this is for enterprise and government, and they talk about “terminals”. This seems more like a Hughes network, and let me tell you, if it’s that bad, you want nothing to do with it.
AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In the USA space-x gets away with a lot. A few years ago they announced they were no longer going to bother with getting all the FAA approvals needed for their rockets because it took too long. Space-x still got government contracts.
eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
A few years ago they announced they were no longer going to bother with getting all the FAA approvals needed for their rockets because it took too long. Space-x still got government contracts.
How long back was that? I genuinely didn’t hear about that, but I believe that would happen. I tried googling “space x faa” but I’m getting results of FAA investigating rocket issues and approvals of rocket models.
Zron@lemmy.world 10 months ago
If your want proof that the wealthy live by a different set of laws, look no further than the time Elon Musk, ceo of SpaceX, went on a podcast and smoked weed.
SpaceX has DOD contracts for launches, and somehow him blatantly violating federal law had no impact on the contracts his company fulfilled for the government.
Do I think weed should be classified like it is? No.
Do I think that everyone should be held to the same standard? Yes. And if anyone else had been involved in government projects while going on podcasts and smoking weed, they’d at the very least be fired.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Maybe… But never going to happen. Privitization and capitalism work the other way in the imperial core.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Yeah, let’s give the trump administration the power to seize companies it doesn’t like, that is a great idea that def won’t be abused all the time
eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Congress has always had this power. I’m personally for nationalizing telecomm companies.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 10 months ago
The problem would be that nationalising them in this day and age would mean prices would get even worse for everyone, as the government having a monopoly on these things would mean they can charge whatever they want.
BugKilla@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Health; education; energy production; food production & distribution; water; housing; mass transit and telecommunications should all be classified as essential services and nationalised. Everything else can be whatever.
seejur@lemmy.world 10 months ago
We are already fucked. The choices given are siding with Trump, and end up like Russia, or side with Elon, and end up like Cyberpunk 2077
mycelium_underground@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Only useless people side with those two.
Stop being useless.
Disaster@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
…or organize, start/join unions, get involved with your local community and build up some real resistance that isn’t based off obscene wealth, lawfare or media brainwashing. Once you have experienced something real, it’s quite hard to understand how or why anyone would fall for the alternative.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
The author probably forgot who runs the nation.
Gluca23@lemmy.world 10 months ago
putin
barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 10 months ago
We no longer live in a world where our biggest fear would be the government controlling high level corporations and their operators.
We now live in a world controlled by Sociopathic Oligarchs who can afford to create government level technology. Right now it’s mostly tourism rockets and satellites, but now we see Skum weaponizing that technology, and/or using it as a bargaining chip. He has cut off Starlink in a war zone to benefit the county who defers to him, but is openly hostile to the US, and now he’s threatening to cut off our access to the space station. He is using tech that WE PAY FOR with government contracts and grants, to pursue his own diplomacy, for his own benefit, and against our interests.
Eventually, someone will start building and stockpiling actual weapons, perhaps even atomics. Then we will be asking why someone didn’t step in and stop them before they became a bonafide threat.
We paid for Skum’s technology, and he gets to control it as a courtesy. Just the threat of using it against us should be enough reason to declare him a national security threat, confiscate his American-taxpayer financed businesses, and imprison him.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
We now live in a world controlled by Sociopathic Oligarchs who can afford to create government level technology.
We have lived in that world for most/all of human history
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Eventually, someone will start building and stockpiling actual weapons, perhaps even atomics. Then we will be asking why someone didn’t step in and stop them before they became a bonafide threat.
Bruh this has happened over and over again. Nobody stops them because the most violence empire on the planet is leading the way. AFAIK the USA is the only state to have actually nuked people.
Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Starlink should not just be nationalized but internationalized.
It is internet for everyone on earth, not everyone in the USA.Every larger nation deploying their own constellation would be a pointless waste of resources, and every smaller nation having to find reliable partner-nations to tap into for that internet access would inevitably lead to people ending up without access due to political games.
Low orbit satellite constellations are the perfect candidate for sharing, they would literally sit unused over most of their orbits otherwise.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I think every larger nation deploying their own constellation would reduce people losing access due to political games.
If there’s only one network with the same topology as Starlink, then the USA, China, or Russia will end up making a bunch of rules on everyone else just like Elon does today. Look how the USA abuses centralized internet infrastructure already. Multiple overlapping systems would be wastefully redundant, but reduces the risk of censorship.
We can’t get along and can’t have nice things.
Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
You want a truly multinational organization responsible for it, nothing that can be controlled by a single nation, even one as (ex)influential as the us.
Something based on the UN perhaps.Combine that with making internet access a human right, to stop denying connectivity outright.
Ideally then you could’t enforce meaningful censorship, but more realistically you would route regions to their respective governments servers so they could censor as before on their territory.
That would not guarantee free access to the internet to everyone, but should be an acceptable compromise to basically all nations.After that, other doubting nations could still pull their own constellation, nothing is stopping that.
I would love if the internet program was uncensored, but that probably needs personal circumvention same as now, if such a program wants any degree of success.
Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Has anyone considered funding NASA?
They made rockets that didn’t explode with duct tape and a TI-83 calculator.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 10 months ago
What “they made” 50 years ago is of little value now. Expertise matters, and it’s lost with time passing.
Still - yes. Nationalization is a bad solution because it gives the state power to nationalize. Seems a truism.
Just let NASA work in its normal role. Instead of replacing that with SpaceX contracts.
wewbull@feddit.uk 10 months ago
If that was actually their expenditure I don’t think they’d have their budget cut.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Where’s the grift tho?
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Looks like we found someone who believed it was financially necessary for the manufacture of the shuttle to be spread across the country.
Uruanna@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Shouldn’t be incompatible with nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink. Just give it all to NASA, actually.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 10 months ago
Sure, that’s the ideal.
Is it likely? Ehhhh
roserose56@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
They didn’t, because someone got paid to write this article!
Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
We? No. USA can if it wants that shit.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
International communities reveal the disgusting chauvinism of the nationalist “we”.
Salamand@lemmy.today 10 months ago
Agreed. But also commies believe that when the state takes something, “we” will get it (and they fail to see why states sponsor their useful idiocy)
Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
The point of communism is that it is state owned.
Burghler@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
American exceptionalism is so fucking annoying. Their country is failing to a point hopefully this first person shit rightfully corrects to third person.
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 10 months ago
American exceptionalism definitely sucks, but this is not an example of American exceptionalism. The source is an article from an American magazine, published for an American audience.
Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
It’s worse here than on Reddit, IMO.
gemappliedfax@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Pedo-nation
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Do that, so that when the US Gov. falls SpaceX and Starlink does too.
reksas@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
Just having such wealth and thus power in hands of singular humans is risk to all of humanity. In this instance you are but big enough drug fueled temper tantrum away from pretty important infrastructure coming crashing down.
Elkot@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is what happens when you meddle in politics
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Lets reach a compromise. Impeach Trump (successfully) and then take away SpaceX from Elon. That way things would be fair.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Trump has been impeached successfully. Twice. What I assume you mean is that he hasn’t been removed from office. That could be the consequence of an impeachment, but not necessarily.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I honestly don’t care about Elon, just get Trump out.
AA5B@lemmy.world 10 months ago
For whatever reasons Musk has found himself as ceo of some wildly successful visionary companies. It has not changed that they are finally bringing the future to the present, disrupting old technologies in favor of newer and better, for a better world. And the musk from before his breakdown deserves a lot of credit
Bieren@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yeah. Let’s give Trump that power.
reivilo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Quite ironic from people constantly accusing their political adversaries to be communists…
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Well that’s not really the case. Conservatives will accuse progressive of being communists, and claim any social services are examples of communism. But it’s mostly those progressives here on Lemmy suggesting communist ideas.
So it’s not really ironic, just unsurprising I guess.
echolalia@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Errr… am I mistaken? This is the first time I’m hearing about nationalizing SpaceX and it’s from Jacobin…
Does Jacobin make a habit of calling people communists? Pretty sure they advocate for socialist positions usually…
big spiderman pointing at spiderman vibes
reivilo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Jacobin is a late 18th early 19th political spectrum. It is not relevant to this situation.
drmoose@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Has US nationalized anything this millenia? I really don’t see that ever happening
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Technically the auto industry in 2008.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Technically no. Bailout =/= nationalization.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I mean if we count bailouts as nationalization, then now we’ve got like some kinda national “socialism” where state and corporate power have fused.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Airport security was nationalized as the TSA. Aside from that no.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
So it takes a spectacular failure of the capitalist grifters? Check.
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Tax burdens for billionaires
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Also losses. Gotta get that sweet, sweet too-big-to-fail bailout money.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 10 months ago
You could always just fund the space agency you already have, instead of funneling money to a foreign billionaire.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is the thing, NASA is underfunded as it is, if we nationalized SpaceX, we wouldn’t actually continue to fund it appropriately and it would simply die. It would be an awful shame for the space industry and for humanity’s future in space.
I hate musk as much as the next guy, but I think the success of spaceX is undeniable. Their success with reusable rockets is not just impressive, it’s ground breaking and important. Developing a fully reusable rocket is probably the most important challenge humans are working on in this era, and I only know of three companies attempting to do it.
lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
You guys are so stuck in the cult of personality. WE PAID FOR EVERYTHING SPACEX DID. IT BELONGS TO US.
KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 10 months ago
Of course he was always a jerk, but I still think of a reality where Elon never went (officially) Nazi and just stuck with his otherwise important companies. Tesla being an important early mover in EVs, especially in such an oil-dependent country, and all the cool stuff SpaceX has been up to.
fodor@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
That’s true but it doesn’t solve the problem now.
qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
have a government run space agency
a private company shows up
does everything better at a fraction of the cost and actually innovates
commies on lemmy: We Should Immediately Nationalize SpaceX and Starlink
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 10 months ago
why stop there?
do it to meta, twitter, amazon, etc
SpicyLizards@reddthat.com 10 months ago
Never gonna happen under republicans… or dems as they are sell outs too.
itisileclerk@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Nationalization is so communist thing to do.
blindbunny@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Giving companies to the state doesn’t always work well. However giving companies to the workers does.
gian@lemmy.grys.it 10 months ago
I would suggest that maybe you should leave SpaceX alone, if you want to still have a space program.
Maybe think about to nationalize healthcare insurance, it seems to be something more usefull
Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Few words are dirtier to Republicans than “nationalize”. They must be torn between following their god-emperor’s hurt feelings and allowing Musk’s company to be taken over by the government. The best I see them doing is cancelling all contracts and subsidies with SpaceX/Tesla and passing them off to its competitors.
something_random_tho@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Also the Tesla charging infrastructure!
zbyte64@awful.systems 10 months ago
The oligarchs wouldn’t like that precedent but they might go for purchasing SpaceX since it is owned by a foreigner. Kind of like with TikTok…