How would we react if one of the commercial missions goes wrong?
There must be a certain difference of standards, when a public organization kills people for science, and when a private company kills people for profit.
Actually, private companies were killing people for profits since always. The whole concept of corporations was iirc created because private people didn't want to be accountable for ships that sank and killed the sailors.
Even now, private companies killing people is nothing unusual. Think oil rigs, or airplanes. Sure - a spaceship exploding and killing the crew is quite spectacular, but when you build a company like SpaceX, you build it with the knowledge that something like this will happen.
With every manned flight, you have the procedures in place for the catastrophic failure, and when it happens, you execute "Plan Red". Nobody is running around screaming. At least I'd like to think so :)
There are lots of dangerous jobs out there that people pursue for profit, from deep sea fishing to building skyscrapers. People who work in dangerous jobs are usually just paid high wages, and people go on with their lives.
Even now, private companies killing people is nothing unusual. Think oil rigs, or airplanes. Sure - a spaceship exploding and killing the crew is quite spectacular, but when you build a company like SpaceX, you build it with the knowledge that something like this will happen.
With every manned flight, you have the procedures in place for the catastrophic failure, and when it happens, you execute "Plan Red". Nobody is running around screaming. At least I'd like to think so :)