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by WalterBright 76 days ago
Do government non-profit spacecraft not use aluminum?

SpaceX rockets also are re-usable, which is environmentally better. They also cost about 10% of what non-profit rockets cost to launch.

> they've indirectly led to the deaths of almost a million people.

DOGE is a non-profit entity. Besides, why can't other non-profit governments pick up the aid?
2 comments
_DeadFred_ 76 days ago
To your last point, because DOGE shut down programs in a such a way as to make that impossible, to the point they chose to let food rot, let medicines go bad, and stranded Americans overseas working on the projects without a way home.
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WalterBright 76 days ago
It's still a non-profit.
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tombert 76 days ago
That's debatable. Musk bought his way into politics and shut down USAID very specifically because USAID was investigating him [1]. Oh, and he used his position in DOGE to assist in making sure that government contracts went to his companies, or licensing out his SpaceX workers when his idiocy led to a shortage of air traffic controllers [2], which was very obviously a publicity stunt if nothing else.

So it's a product that was bought and used to enrich a single person. Sure seems like a for-profit to me, at least in this administration.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/usaid-elon-musk-starlink-probe-ukra...

[2] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

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WalterBright 76 days ago
Still non-profit
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tombert 75 days ago
Only nominally.
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anonymous_user9 76 days ago
The problem is the amount of aluminum. Government non-profit spacecraft do not use very much aluminum, because they don't launch thousands of LEO satellites per year. By building the first megaconstellation and kicking off competition, SpaceX is exposing humanity to different risks, namely ozone depletion and new mechanisms of climate change:

[1] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL10...

[2] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JD04...

> DOGE is a non-profit entity

You seem to be saying that non-profit entities are incapable of killing people? Or that it's fine if non-profit entities do kill people?

> Besides, why can't other non-profit governments pick up the aid?

I think you're being obtuse. An analogy: "Sure I turned off the circuit breaker that was powering the life support machines, but why couldn't someone else bring in a UPS and plug them in to that?"

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WalterBright 75 days ago
Government non-profits also have little to no ability to create a starlink system.
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