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Space Stations, Space Shuttles and Beyond - The Aerospace Discussion Thread
Kugai:
Speaking of seagoing space facilities, wasn't there some Russian organisation doing that?
Went looking for it, and here it is. Sea Launch
Seems they're currently out of business though thanks to the events in the Ukraine.
Akima:
--- Quote from: GarandMarine on 06 Jan 2015, 15:56 ---Privatization was the only way space exploration was truly going to get massive.
--- End quote ---
I'm dubious about that. You don't generally see the private sector funding big basic-science projects like the Large Hadron Collider for the same reason I suspect we won't see it funding space exploration: there's no foreseeable profit in it. That is not to say that the private sector can't do space stuff where there is a profit in it, like launching commercial satellites. Nor is it to deny that it might well be able efficiently to do stuff like shipping supplies to the ISS profitably, but that is sucking on the state's funding-tit just like any other government contractor who is ultimately gets paid by the taxpayer. And there is nothing new in that; the Lunar Excursion Module was built by private sector firms led by Grumman Aircraft.
GarandMarine:
Actually, there's already multiple asteroid mining firms that are developing the tech needed to push to the asteroid belt for resource extraction. http://www.planetaryresources.com/
The Private sector doesn't fund basic science projects, that's true... but the development of space flight has reached the point where where private firms can not only access space on their own, either by developing their own launch platforms or using multiple private sector launch services.
LTK:
SpaceX releases video of Falcon 9’s explosive landing
Can we embed vines yet? :P
GarandMarine:
They found the Beagle Mars probe!
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