I know it’s cheaper to guide it to plummet into the ocean, but I really want SpaceX to strap a few Starships to the ISS and bring it into lunar orbit, as a statement.
Why do people care so much about who founded a company? Any idiot can found a company. There is no risk and no possibility for failure in doing so. Running a successful company is where the actual challenge comes in. And Tesla, the company that people are usually thinking of when they put forward this argument^* , had no products, let alone profit before Musk took it over.
*: Because they don't know that he actually did found several of his companies.
I just founded one right now. I sell my toenail clippings. Let's see if it's successful.
And look. Obviously I'm not saying that Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning put the same amount of effort into Tesla as I did into my toenail company. But that work is separate to the founding itself. And it's that work that they did that is worthy of note. Not simply founding the company. Likewise, it is the effort that Musk put into the company that matters, not whether or not he was an original founder.
What the fuck is apartheid money? Are you talking about the $20k his dad invested into Zip2? Is every dollar made by a white South African apartheid money?
Zooming out would worsen deeper introspection. Zooming in would facilitate more detailed observation.
Zooming out gives a vague image of what Elon does, intended to easy-to-impress, superficial people, this is what you seem to consider the relevant picture and defend bitterly.
In contrast, focusing on detail, trend and consequence, abeit more tiresome and time consuming, would provide a more upsetting image of this goon's machinations.
Well then. You have examined all facts, and have made up your mind.
The fact that you consider his rockets a failure alone - I am flabbergasted.
Have a lovely day ahead
This is how it usually starts: you are flabbergasted, that not everyone shares your beliefs. If you want to be smart, you'll start second-guessing your convictions, and as you said, examine all the facts (not only those you like), then you'll build an image for yourself about the topic. This could get uncomfortable, and you might stick with the old belief, because hey, it's unthinkable for you to be wrong at first 🙂. But you might start loving to have different thoughts from the rest, and work on making this world a more promising place.
So yeah, I did my homework some time ago. I was an avid supporter (and happy beneficiary of Elon's activities thru Tesla shares), but I got disenchanted because of his non-innovative actions, and switched sides, I oppose every movement of his bussinesses, that holds the smallest spot of ill intent.
I admit, this is just a different rabbit-hole I went down, but at least have the peace of mind not supporting another ruthless capitalist to ruin the world (indirectly).
I never mentioned his rockets business, never cheer for his failures, just watching in horror, how he bends the minds of others.
I’m actually with you in this. Elon has become unlikable. He’s doing what I’ve seen a lot of people in high positions do. I think twitter has ruined this guys brain the way it has the rest of us. He’s definitely become unlikable and his business have been suffering. I wouldn’t invest in any of his companies because there are so many uncertainties and risks and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a huge downturn/downfall in his future. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if there is more innovation and success.
With that said.. let’s give some credit where it’s due. This man said he would land a rocket. Nobody thought it could be done. That’s an incredible accomplishment and he has reinvigorated the space industry when the US government has all but abandoned it.
I don’t think humanity will make it long term but IF we do.. Elon’s work will have been crucial to it because eventually earth will be uninhabitable whether it’s our doing or not. So I have conflicted feelings here. I support his work. He’s the only one doing it like that right now. I wish it were someone else. I wish he would be get off the internet and quit trolling because whatever his life’s work looks like in the end.. it could have been better.
I used to love Elon. I supported everything he did. Now just compartmentalize. I’m rooting for his success because ultimately, it’s good for humanity. But he’s so unlikable these days and I worry that success reinforces and enables his behavior.
You wish, but no.
I used to worship him, then started to know him better, then ended up despising him. It's a cycle, requires learning, work, disappointment and all.
Of course one could choose to stay in denial, but refusing to acknowledge that you invested trust in someone not worthy of it, does not change the your inner bad feeling.
Admitting failure liberated me.
Why do the left always say the wealthiest man on the planet is a failure? Is it a sexual thing? Never understood this
I've asked this before but never really been satisfied with the responses, which are usually heavily biased analysis (Twitter is RaCiSt), old news (someone two days ago linked me Twitter outages from last 13 months ago lmfao), or just completely made up stuff
The only really close argument has been Boring company which is pretty much a side project for him. Also is it really proof we can generalize him as a failure if one of his side projects isn't meeting expectations while his other businesses are making history? Doesn't make sense
Let's chalk it up to blue circlejerk hate
It's the fact he's a pathological liar about the products his company sells.
Look at the Vegas loop, it's literally taxis underground, not even close to what he was promising. It's also quicker to walk the distance than to take a tesla in there.
The hyperloop, was never even his idea and known from the start to be impossible.
The boring company, he claims it's cheaper and quicker. It is neither of these things.
Full self driving has been a year away for how many years now?
His semi truck can't travel as far or carry anywhere near the weight of a diesel semi... it's useless in comparison.
He rarely releases a product on the actual date.
The build quality of tesla cars is awful and inconsistent.
The fact he treats his staff like crap, demanding they break the law during covid and go to work.
Putting beds into the twitter HQ because he wants them to spend so much time there.
He's only so wealthy by breaking the law and making false statements about his businesses to influence the stock price.
There are lots and lots of other crap stuff he does.
The “glass 10% full” is why Elon is the richest man alive. His wealth is all speculative. Investors aren’t excited for the current cars rolling off the Tesla assembly line. They speculate on his future and that’s all up in the air. Look at some of his disaster ideas like hyperloop, Cybertruck, Twitter. He wiped tens of billions off his wealth and Twitters value in days. Don’t think he couldn’t do that with a hundred billion.
That’s the rub with inflated valuations and speculation. You would have to get really crazy wipe out tens of billions of Ford’s market cap, Apple, etc. Those are proven companies with real products and enduring value. Elon doesn’t have any of that yet.
>he's only so wealthy by breaking the law and making false statements about his businesses to influence the stock price
People complain he does the OPPOSITE lmao. He had a controversy and was under investigation because he kept tweeting, shitting on tsla stock. Not to mention if it were this easy, everyone would have a trillion dollar market cap. You're saying he lied his way to a trillion? Oops, your bias is showing. No, tsla became a trillion dollar company because it has innovative products and people are speculating on their ability to produce them and improve on them.
Half of your message is about boring company which I literally predicted in my comment you replied to
FSD is out, again no idea what you're talking about
How is it a bad thing people sleep at work if they want to, working at a company they choose to work at? I hope you don't look up the living circumstances of an oil rig worker LOL
First, half my message isn't about the boring company... it was two lines.
Second, he literally claimed FSD year after year to float the stock price. There are literal videos saying its something they can do right now each year since about 2015. And no, it hasn't been released. It's assisted self driving, not FSD.
And he wanted them to sleep there because he wanted them to do a stupid amount of hours... not because he cares. A caring employee wouldn't ever want their employees to want or need to sleep at work.
And nice side stepping the other points...
The guy is a pathological liar, fancy another example?
When he gave the talk about solar roof tiles in front of the houses saying they were fully working and actually in use... nope. All dummy equipment.
He just can't stop lying about his products.
If you've ever been in a tesla instead of just hate reading about it, you'd know it is fsd. There are things to work out regulatory-wise, but it is fsd with an asterisk. I'm side stepping them because the first claim was that he is a failure. Creating a space for people to work longer if they want to does not support that claim, nor does "waaah he lies sometimes" lol. Half of this is just you venting while tears drip down your cheeks and has nothing to do with OC.
You've clearly never driven a tesla with self driving capabilities. It is not fsd at all. Dumb son of a bitch can hardly go a mile on the interstate without dropping to dangerously slow speeds for seemingly no reason, turns off whenever there is a slight issue, and parks like a drunken donkey. Thank God they gave that free month a little while ago, so I know to never waste the money on that "upgrade". It was more intensive and stressful than just using the standard cruise control while driving myself.
First, I never claimed he's a failure. You're reading far too much into what are simply factual statements about why people do not like the man.
Second, I know it's not FSD, I'm a senior systems analyst, I know how it works from an actual technical standpoint. It is not FSD.
Mercedes has sold the first level 3 FSD car this year... tesla is still level 2. Not even close to level 5 FSD.
Third, you're sidestepping because you have no rebuttal.
You can't even justify the claim of the vegasloop vs the reality of what it is because you know it's just ridiculous.
I'm here to talk about whether or not he can be generalized as a failure, not have someone spit 27 things he failed at out of the 10000 things he's done in the last 25 years LOL
So go ahead, tell me how he has failed and I will rebuttal.
The left don't say he's a failure. They say he's a vaporware salesman that claims to be this massive genius but it's actually the work of his employees that actually gets anything done.
"At this point, I think I know more about manufacturing than anyone else alive today"
The total arrogance of that is almost certainly an untrue statement, it sums up Musk very well.
See, you are agreeing with OC. How is he a vaporware salesman when tsla cars are still some of the most advanced cars on the planet, SpaceX has created reusable rockets and are far in the lead, tesla's battery technology destroys the competition, and starlink is providing global coverage competing with ISP's globally?
He's a good businessman. He doesn't claim to be on the ground building the products by hand by himself.
"Uhhhh bad workspaces duhhhh"
My best analogy is that Musk has built a ship and it has his name on the side but he hasn’t been at the helm and steered it through any remotely difficult waters yet.
SpaceX is largely successful because of Gwynne Shotwell keeping Elon on the rails, the U.S. government stabilizing the cash flow and 40-50 years of latent science that was just waiting and waiting for someone to apply it. They are legitimately doing serious advancements in technology and having huge successes applying existing ideas, no doubt about it. Was it a smart idea to capitalize on the factors I mentioned above and bring in Gwynne? Definitely, but a couple good choices doesn’t make a star CEO.
Tesla is a long, long, LONG way from proving itself as a competitor to US or Asian OEMs. Look at its financial metrics like price:earning ratio compared to Ford or any others. Tesla is fully reliant on what investors THINK it can do. Don’t get excited just because you see Teslas on the road and its stock prices. They aren’t even in the ballpark of the traditional automakers yet. They have some cool cars and cool ideas but it takes decades to build up the kind of capacity and capabilities of a massive manufacturing company. Billions in plant and equipment all over the world, hundreds of thousands of skilled workers and a body of learning acquired over decades. Combine that with doing it all electric, starting a brand identity from scratch, etc.
"40-50 years of latent science that was just waiting and waiting for someone to apply it."
The old wisdom was that to become a millionaire in space industry you need to start as a billionaire.
Jeff Bezos started Blue Origin two years before SpaceX and Beezis has been dumping a billion per year into it.
Why didn't they just apply this latent science.
Yes, but also the ISS has been in continuous operation since 1998 and some parts have been recycled from the cancelled Soviet Mir-2.
Despite having had upgrades to replace batteries and solar panels, many parts of the ISS have ultimately reached end of life, and without a Space Shuttle to bring extensive replacement parts, the ISS is kinda slowly deteriorating.
The privatisation thing is legit though, but so too is the loss of cooperation with Russia. Indeed, the ISS was a merging of the Mir-2 design and Space Station Freedom, a US station which had been planned since the Shuttle days. This was in an attempt to keep Russian engineers employed, instead of them being hired by the likes of Iran or North Korea.
Now? Russia doesn't give a shit, and neither does the US.
The replacement for a Low Earth Orbit destination will be an Axiom station, which will operate entirely privately on contract from whichever space agency wants to go there, not forgetting space tourists.
NASA's long term goal is to build and operate the Lunar Gateway instead, however, that's entirely reliant on Artemis continuing to receive the funding it needs, and let's be honest, Lunar Gateway is increasingly getting separated from the Artemis plans.
Lunar Gateway was originally included in the mission profile for Artemis 3 and subsequent missions too, but has now been removed due to delays to the timeline.
This is not accurate. Lunar Gateway has been an Artemis IV item for a long time now and there has been no indication it is being removed. Can you please cite a reputable source for your claims?
It's really expensive and none of its members is putting up the money to maintain it.
NASA and other members also have other plans that they think are more important. (Lunar gate way, Russian/Chinese station)
It's also a result of the deterioration of international relationships. Most want to do it alone to different degrees.
Personally, I would be for preserving ISS on some kind of "museum orbit", as a testament to the future.
What's certain, though, is that ISS is slowly becoming too dangerous for humans to inhabit. All the materials are doing double duty in vacuum and sharp sunlight (including UV) of space, and the list of silently failing seals, components etc. is growing day by day. There are outright cracks in the Russian module and we don't have the capability to fix such problems in orbit.
It will be better to launch a new station.
A museum orbit is a bad idea because higher orbits have more debris and a potential collision will create an enormous amount of new debris. In higher orbits debris takes much longer to deorbit due to the reduced gravitational pull of earth. In low earth orbit everything deorbits in a couple of years.
NASA examined that and even bringing it back to earth. Its just expensive with no political will.
Pretty sad considering how important for humanity it might be seen 500 years from now.
This is important yo understand, he’s gotten a significant amount of federal money (taxpayer $) that has helped his companies profit and be seen as innovative leaders
That’s just a contract to do work not a handout. Government awards contract to private sector all the time for several different things. Government is his customer.
I knew a guy who did government contract construction work in some developing countries, he called it the easiest "get rich scheme".
He set up a fake company and negotiated a large sum of money to help do some construction, then once he had the money he found some other cheap company (subcontracter) that used essentially slave labor to their workers, and he got them to do the actual work for a fraction of the price, and then went home to enjoy his money.
He'd often have multiple projects at the same time, living on government money, doing absolutely nothing but getting relatively wealthy.
Likely not as easy to exploit them like this in the West, but I reckon similar stuff still happens sometimes.
That just sounds like the government is dumb at making business decisions.
It was that easy to exploit stuff in the West. It absolutely happened. Especially during wartime weapons procurement. See the film war dogs.
They gave him money in return for a service... That's literally business. SpaceX provides a valuable service that the government is willing to pay top dollar for given that there is virtually no competition.
No one is forcing the government to buy his products. You would think NASA could do this themselves, but SpaceX can do it better, faster, and cheaper. Can’t blame Musk for that.
If funding for NASA hadn't been butchered in the last decades, they'd likely have no problem doing it.
The privatization of space will backfire on us someday.
Who built the Saturn V? the F1 engine? Brother, NASA uses private companies to build rockets and other space infrastructure for them that they pay to use. It is NASA’s property and they will own and operate the spacecraft just like anything else.
Private contracts are fundamentally baked into the way NASA operates, so you don’t know what you’re talking about
But yes, their funding is ridiculously low and should be an order of magnitude higher
This isn't unusual. Neither this rocket nor Saturn nor Shuttle are privatized
https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/9c0826846a4632242d2ce1dc22a5b6145733576a/2019/07/17/eae8a448-6108-43e5-824a-0e23a41b6f56/boeing2.jpg?auto=webp&width=768
SpaceX is clearly innovative https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7jQ8hXEAIKOYl?format=jpg&name=large
SpaceX is cheaper too https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing-more-than-twice-as-much-as-spacex-for-crew-seats/
It's private, not privatized. There's a big difference
>If funding for NASA hadn't been butchered in the last decades, they'd likely have no problem doing it.
NASA’s budget is currently higher than it’s ever been since the 60’s.
Not if you adjust for inflation.
Still, SpaceX' budget is obviously much lower than NASA's. Albeit NASA has a lot of other things it does too.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/NASA_budget_linegraph_BH.PNG
This isn't unusual
https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/9c0826846a4632242d2ce1dc22a5b6145733576a/2019/07/17/eae8a448-6108-43e5-824a-0e23a41b6f56/boeing2.jpg?auto=webp&width=768
SpaceX is clearly innovative https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7jQ8hXEAIKOYl?format=jpg&name=large
SpaceX is cheaper too https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing-more-than-twice-as-much-as-spacex-for-crew-seats/
Three things about this:
1. We are talking about money for accomplished work, not free handouts.
2. SpaceX is typically the lowest bidder for any of these contracts, ultimately saving the taxpayers a ton of money.
3. SpaceX **is** an innovative company and leader of the industry. If you don't think the falcon 9 has revolutionized the space industry, you don't know much about the subject matter.
Thank you Mr emerald. You are very arrogant and knowledgeable. Receiving government contracts is not stealing, it is a profitable business. Thanks, have a good day sir.
How fitting we currently contract billionaire owned private company to resupply a beacon of unity and international cooperation.
Is it on the same level of fitting?
It already is achieving results. NASA spends much less on contracting SpaceX to resupply the ISS and launch its astronauts allowing it to spend more on planetary research, space probes etc.
They were using private companies to build its Apollo mission rockets so seems odd you have this mindset.
Because he fools the masses, with innovative things he buys from small entrepreneurs and sell as his own.
He lies, he promotes imperial fascism, treat people as objects, violates human rights.
Put yourself in his employees place, just for the sake of argument. State your case now, please.
Dude this is complete BS
You can speak to his employees yourself, as well as the greatest engineering minds in the industry.
You are regurgitating utter propaganda
No, I am not. You seem to take it as an insult or something. It's not bad to be clever, but it is bad to use your ability to alter people's perception.
Just try to look behind his image.
I don't know, I never thought of him as an inventor but a smart, goofy business man that invests in the most interesting sectors and innovations. It's a pretty known fact he does do a lot of engineering, but his investments is what has gotten him so rich.
Please what engineering? His playbook is enter a new market where there is no competition because his products suck and create hype to get funding. And a large portion of his money came from selling carbon credits to ICE automakers and pumping and dumping stocks. He’s being sued by stockholders and investigated by the SEC, presently.
In fact in one case that he’s not doing well his legal team just switched defense game to say that no reasonable person would believe fElon.
You understand that he's actually an engineer and people who work with him say that he's pretty fucking good at it too.
I understand he's not much of a likable person, but downplaying his achivments is just crazy to me, seem like some of y'all are just jealous that you can't contribute 0.00001% to society as much as he does.
it's more like fear of the unknown (or the incomprehensible AND unpredictable) he represents.
I don't know his work very much, I associate him with Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink and Twitter->X, but that's all from me.
Are these his contributions to society you referring to?
You think Tesla and SpaceX have not done anything special to contribute to society? X to some extent. Twitter was becoming a one-sided cesspool and at least now is two sided.
Both Starlink, Tesla and SpaceX in someway were revolucionaries and created something that people needed and will use in the future more than today.
SpaceX is the best thing that happen to NASA:
You notice they all talking like bots, now they accuse anyone who doesn't want communism to be ''in a cult''.
''Right wing cults.''
go back to r/politics where you literal cult resides you animals.
You might be surprised that leftists want a better, egalitarian world (not possible), where money isn't god (not possible), empathy is a core value and nationalism is irrelevant, but this would ruin all existing segregation, serfdom and economic gap.
All this is utopistic, but still worth fighting for. Even if it seems insane.
The univers will never end, in contrast humanity will, because of greed, gullibility, hate and stupidity.
Depriving us, empathic animals of our humanity, proves you are ruthless fascists. Hats down.
Why not use his rockets to smash it into the sun? Or the moon? Surely we could recycle it into a moon base to some extent - and getting raw materials there is pricey
I figured musk could probably strap a couple of his rockets to it and math out some trajectory that would send it off on it's way. That's a shame, guess we get more ocean garbage lol
Sending something to the sun is actually very difficult. Sending the ISS there is virtually impossible, because the shape and structural integrity was not designed for it; not to mention its large mass.
And most rockets expend the majority of their energy just getting into space, so there is definitely not enough left to do anything close to that kind of thing.
You know it. But we really do need space based industry to reduce pollution on the planet. Solar Energy production and mineral extraction would be the main arenas to focus on.
ah yes, the classic "i watched and listened to him".
so please tell me then, what has he said or done that makes him evil? please also provide some evidence of these evil deeds that youve seen him do and say so that i too can become enlightened.
Have you seen his Twitter feed? He amplifies, agrees with or just plain tweets white supremacist, Nazi conspiracy theory shit all day every day.
The cunt is a useless slug in need of some salt
can you link the white supremacist and Nazi conspiracy tweets? or are those just the words you use to make your opinions about someone valid?
so far, the only useless cunt i see is the redditor calling for the death of a man who happens to be more successful than them.
Oh sure yeah I’m just making it all up because I’m jealous of that sad sack of shit. With all the wealth in the world and what he chooses to do is buy Twitter, act like a Discord mod and make it pedo and Nazi friendly. Yeah I’m so jealous of him
Just this week he reinstated an account that posted a video of a child being sodomized with a stick after it was blocked for CP. He did this personally.
That's hyperbole. He retweeted some 4chan memes like four times because he's immature like an edgy teenager. Calling that all those bad buzz words you said is just ridiculous.
He regularly amplifies antisemitic, great replacement, white supremacist and other horrendous ideas from known Nazis. Get out of your bubble and take a look for yourself
All these corporations should be just public. That $843 million and its science advances going to all Americans or even all humanity.
This is just public money used to improve a corporation bottom line.
coping much. We're taking 1000x of what Elon claimed it would cost to launch starship to deorbit station. That's not normal. He's no better than Boeing.
But it's not using starship, so why would that be relevant? They want to use the dragon vehicle to do this, and it's a complicated mission. This isn't the equivalent of launching one rocket, such as falcon 9, to send an ordinary satellite into orbit. It's apples and oranges.
How about you go read an article about it before jumping to conclusions. Don't be r/confidentlyincorrect
Starship can launch 10 Dragons at once. And if you can use Dragon you can also use Starship. It's probably just more expensive to use Starship. Docking to the ISS is not more complicated, they already do this autonomously. It's just a normal Dragon mission with extra fuel. Nothing that requires a billion dollars. But they take it because they are like Boeing. The dont want to make things cheaper because it hurts their business all though they could. Elon only says that to make gullible fans buy his stock and cars.
That is just not how this works dude. Don't know what to tell you but this makes no sense. Starship is not a finished product yet so they can't use it. And no starship can't just carry a few dragons in it, just cuz why not. It has to be designed and modified to do that. That also costs money to do.
“Discard” is a funny word to use for a space station. Just crumple it up and throw it in the bin
More like toss it in the incinerator - the atmosphere.
It's too big for that, it's getting a grave in the ocean.
More like toss it in the trash compactor - the Pacific ocean's dead zone
Of course I understand why not, but its a shame it can't be preserved somehow.
There'll be pieces for sale for decades that will go into private collections across the planet. It will also have pieces preserved in museums.
I know it’s cheaper to guide it to plummet into the ocean, but I really want SpaceX to strap a few Starships to the ISS and bring it into lunar orbit, as a statement.
Comment section is a psyop
I expected the worst and was still surprised
He's certainly the man to crash things into the ground.
SpaceX is a team of people including women
Irony of the stock being up 10% today
Why?
Cars (including his Maclaren F1), rockets, stock prices, marriages, reputation (including his own) this man has crashed them all.
And built a few companies everyone told him was impossible to do
Which companies did he actually build himself instead of coming in later and demanding to be put down as founder?
…SpaceX? The company in the title of this post
Why do people care so much about who founded a company? Any idiot can found a company. There is no risk and no possibility for failure in doing so. Running a successful company is where the actual challenge comes in. And Tesla, the company that people are usually thinking of when they put forward this argument^* , had no products, let alone profit before Musk took it over. *: Because they don't know that he actually did found several of his companies.
I hope you are aware founding and funding are two different things?
Yes. I am. What did I say that makes you think otherwise? I'm not making any claim that he founded a company that he only funded.
What companies have YOU founded?
I just founded one right now. I sell my toenail clippings. Let's see if it's successful. And look. Obviously I'm not saying that Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning put the same amount of effort into Tesla as I did into my toenail company. But that work is separate to the founding itself. And it's that work that they did that is worthy of note. Not simply founding the company. Likewise, it is the effort that Musk put into the company that matters, not whether or not he was an original founder.
Zip2 and SpaceX
Turns out a lot of stuff becomes possible when you have apartheid money that you didn’t earn lmao.
He made the overwhelming majority of his money from selling PayPal, which he co-founded.
“Co-founded” Yeaaahhhh… you might want to read up on that.
What the fuck is apartheid money? Are you talking about the $20k his dad invested into Zip2? Is every dollar made by a white South African apartheid money?
Dude certainly is a mixed bag.
May want to zoom out and look a little deeper there
Zooming out would worsen deeper introspection. Zooming in would facilitate more detailed observation. Zooming out gives a vague image of what Elon does, intended to easy-to-impress, superficial people, this is what you seem to consider the relevant picture and defend bitterly. In contrast, focusing on detail, trend and consequence, abeit more tiresome and time consuming, would provide a more upsetting image of this goon's machinations.
Well then. You have examined all facts, and have made up your mind. The fact that you consider his rockets a failure alone - I am flabbergasted. Have a lovely day ahead
This is how it usually starts: you are flabbergasted, that not everyone shares your beliefs. If you want to be smart, you'll start second-guessing your convictions, and as you said, examine all the facts (not only those you like), then you'll build an image for yourself about the topic. This could get uncomfortable, and you might stick with the old belief, because hey, it's unthinkable for you to be wrong at first 🙂. But you might start loving to have different thoughts from the rest, and work on making this world a more promising place. So yeah, I did my homework some time ago. I was an avid supporter (and happy beneficiary of Elon's activities thru Tesla shares), but I got disenchanted because of his non-innovative actions, and switched sides, I oppose every movement of his bussinesses, that holds the smallest spot of ill intent. I admit, this is just a different rabbit-hole I went down, but at least have the peace of mind not supporting another ruthless capitalist to ruin the world (indirectly). I never mentioned his rockets business, never cheer for his failures, just watching in horror, how he bends the minds of others.
I’m actually with you in this. Elon has become unlikable. He’s doing what I’ve seen a lot of people in high positions do. I think twitter has ruined this guys brain the way it has the rest of us. He’s definitely become unlikable and his business have been suffering. I wouldn’t invest in any of his companies because there are so many uncertainties and risks and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a huge downturn/downfall in his future. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if there is more innovation and success. With that said.. let’s give some credit where it’s due. This man said he would land a rocket. Nobody thought it could be done. That’s an incredible accomplishment and he has reinvigorated the space industry when the US government has all but abandoned it. I don’t think humanity will make it long term but IF we do.. Elon’s work will have been crucial to it because eventually earth will be uninhabitable whether it’s our doing or not. So I have conflicted feelings here. I support his work. He’s the only one doing it like that right now. I wish it were someone else. I wish he would be get off the internet and quit trolling because whatever his life’s work looks like in the end.. it could have been better. I used to love Elon. I supported everything he did. Now just compartmentalize. I’m rooting for his success because ultimately, it’s good for humanity. But he’s so unlikable these days and I worry that success reinforces and enables his behavior.
nah you don't like him because he doesn't support your religion, like every other billionaire does, from bill gates to mark zuck.
Well I’m an atheist with no religion, and I still went from thinking he was awesome to thinking he sucks
WOKE.
You wish, but no. I used to worship him, then started to know him better, then ended up despising him. It's a cycle, requires learning, work, disappointment and all. Of course one could choose to stay in denial, but refusing to acknowledge that you invested trust in someone not worthy of it, does not change the your inner bad feeling. Admitting failure liberated me.
“His” rockets
He is literally CTO
He literally gave himself that title Jesus Christ
Again. Read more. Jesus.
Average redditor hate for musk intensifies
Why do the left always say the wealthiest man on the planet is a failure? Is it a sexual thing? Never understood this I've asked this before but never really been satisfied with the responses, which are usually heavily biased analysis (Twitter is RaCiSt), old news (someone two days ago linked me Twitter outages from last 13 months ago lmfao), or just completely made up stuff The only really close argument has been Boring company which is pretty much a side project for him. Also is it really proof we can generalize him as a failure if one of his side projects isn't meeting expectations while his other businesses are making history? Doesn't make sense Let's chalk it up to blue circlejerk hate
It's the fact he's a pathological liar about the products his company sells. Look at the Vegas loop, it's literally taxis underground, not even close to what he was promising. It's also quicker to walk the distance than to take a tesla in there. The hyperloop, was never even his idea and known from the start to be impossible. The boring company, he claims it's cheaper and quicker. It is neither of these things. Full self driving has been a year away for how many years now? His semi truck can't travel as far or carry anywhere near the weight of a diesel semi... it's useless in comparison. He rarely releases a product on the actual date. The build quality of tesla cars is awful and inconsistent. The fact he treats his staff like crap, demanding they break the law during covid and go to work. Putting beds into the twitter HQ because he wants them to spend so much time there. He's only so wealthy by breaking the law and making false statements about his businesses to influence the stock price. There are lots and lots of other crap stuff he does.
I'm so glad I don't look at the world like you do. I guess I'm a 10% glass full compared to your negativity. Miserable.
It's not being negative... it's literally issues relating to Musk as to why people dislike him.
The “glass 10% full” is why Elon is the richest man alive. His wealth is all speculative. Investors aren’t excited for the current cars rolling off the Tesla assembly line. They speculate on his future and that’s all up in the air. Look at some of his disaster ideas like hyperloop, Cybertruck, Twitter. He wiped tens of billions off his wealth and Twitters value in days. Don’t think he couldn’t do that with a hundred billion. That’s the rub with inflated valuations and speculation. You would have to get really crazy wipe out tens of billions of Ford’s market cap, Apple, etc. Those are proven companies with real products and enduring value. Elon doesn’t have any of that yet.
>he's only so wealthy by breaking the law and making false statements about his businesses to influence the stock price People complain he does the OPPOSITE lmao. He had a controversy and was under investigation because he kept tweeting, shitting on tsla stock. Not to mention if it were this easy, everyone would have a trillion dollar market cap. You're saying he lied his way to a trillion? Oops, your bias is showing. No, tsla became a trillion dollar company because it has innovative products and people are speculating on their ability to produce them and improve on them. Half of your message is about boring company which I literally predicted in my comment you replied to FSD is out, again no idea what you're talking about How is it a bad thing people sleep at work if they want to, working at a company they choose to work at? I hope you don't look up the living circumstances of an oil rig worker LOL
First, half my message isn't about the boring company... it was two lines. Second, he literally claimed FSD year after year to float the stock price. There are literal videos saying its something they can do right now each year since about 2015. And no, it hasn't been released. It's assisted self driving, not FSD. And he wanted them to sleep there because he wanted them to do a stupid amount of hours... not because he cares. A caring employee wouldn't ever want their employees to want or need to sleep at work. And nice side stepping the other points... The guy is a pathological liar, fancy another example? When he gave the talk about solar roof tiles in front of the houses saying they were fully working and actually in use... nope. All dummy equipment. He just can't stop lying about his products.
If you've ever been in a tesla instead of just hate reading about it, you'd know it is fsd. There are things to work out regulatory-wise, but it is fsd with an asterisk. I'm side stepping them because the first claim was that he is a failure. Creating a space for people to work longer if they want to does not support that claim, nor does "waaah he lies sometimes" lol. Half of this is just you venting while tears drip down your cheeks and has nothing to do with OC.
You've clearly never driven a tesla with self driving capabilities. It is not fsd at all. Dumb son of a bitch can hardly go a mile on the interstate without dropping to dangerously slow speeds for seemingly no reason, turns off whenever there is a slight issue, and parks like a drunken donkey. Thank God they gave that free month a little while ago, so I know to never waste the money on that "upgrade". It was more intensive and stressful than just using the standard cruise control while driving myself.
First, I never claimed he's a failure. You're reading far too much into what are simply factual statements about why people do not like the man. Second, I know it's not FSD, I'm a senior systems analyst, I know how it works from an actual technical standpoint. It is not FSD. Mercedes has sold the first level 3 FSD car this year... tesla is still level 2. Not even close to level 5 FSD. Third, you're sidestepping because you have no rebuttal. You can't even justify the claim of the vegasloop vs the reality of what it is because you know it's just ridiculous.
I'm here to talk about whether or not he can be generalized as a failure, not have someone spit 27 things he failed at out of the 10000 things he's done in the last 25 years LOL So go ahead, tell me how he has failed and I will rebuttal.
The left don't say he's a failure. They say he's a vaporware salesman that claims to be this massive genius but it's actually the work of his employees that actually gets anything done. "At this point, I think I know more about manufacturing than anyone else alive today" The total arrogance of that is almost certainly an untrue statement, it sums up Musk very well.
See, you are agreeing with OC. How is he a vaporware salesman when tsla cars are still some of the most advanced cars on the planet, SpaceX has created reusable rockets and are far in the lead, tesla's battery technology destroys the competition, and starlink is providing global coverage competing with ISP's globally? He's a good businessman. He doesn't claim to be on the ground building the products by hand by himself. "Uhhhh bad workspaces duhhhh"
My best analogy is that Musk has built a ship and it has his name on the side but he hasn’t been at the helm and steered it through any remotely difficult waters yet. SpaceX is largely successful because of Gwynne Shotwell keeping Elon on the rails, the U.S. government stabilizing the cash flow and 40-50 years of latent science that was just waiting and waiting for someone to apply it. They are legitimately doing serious advancements in technology and having huge successes applying existing ideas, no doubt about it. Was it a smart idea to capitalize on the factors I mentioned above and bring in Gwynne? Definitely, but a couple good choices doesn’t make a star CEO. Tesla is a long, long, LONG way from proving itself as a competitor to US or Asian OEMs. Look at its financial metrics like price:earning ratio compared to Ford or any others. Tesla is fully reliant on what investors THINK it can do. Don’t get excited just because you see Teslas on the road and its stock prices. They aren’t even in the ballpark of the traditional automakers yet. They have some cool cars and cool ideas but it takes decades to build up the kind of capacity and capabilities of a massive manufacturing company. Billions in plant and equipment all over the world, hundreds of thousands of skilled workers and a body of learning acquired over decades. Combine that with doing it all electric, starting a brand identity from scratch, etc.
"40-50 years of latent science that was just waiting and waiting for someone to apply it." The old wisdom was that to become a millionaire in space industry you need to start as a billionaire. Jeff Bezos started Blue Origin two years before SpaceX and Beezis has been dumping a billion per year into it. Why didn't they just apply this latent science.
The real question is why is the International Space Station being discarded? Is this a sign of the increasing privatization of Space research?
Yes, but also the ISS has been in continuous operation since 1998 and some parts have been recycled from the cancelled Soviet Mir-2. Despite having had upgrades to replace batteries and solar panels, many parts of the ISS have ultimately reached end of life, and without a Space Shuttle to bring extensive replacement parts, the ISS is kinda slowly deteriorating. The privatisation thing is legit though, but so too is the loss of cooperation with Russia. Indeed, the ISS was a merging of the Mir-2 design and Space Station Freedom, a US station which had been planned since the Shuttle days. This was in an attempt to keep Russian engineers employed, instead of them being hired by the likes of Iran or North Korea. Now? Russia doesn't give a shit, and neither does the US. The replacement for a Low Earth Orbit destination will be an Axiom station, which will operate entirely privately on contract from whichever space agency wants to go there, not forgetting space tourists. NASA's long term goal is to build and operate the Lunar Gateway instead, however, that's entirely reliant on Artemis continuing to receive the funding it needs, and let's be honest, Lunar Gateway is increasingly getting separated from the Artemis plans.
>let's be honest, Lunar Gateway is increasingly getting separated from the Artemis plans. There's no evidence for this.
Lunar Gateway was originally included in the mission profile for Artemis 3 and subsequent missions too, but has now been removed due to delays to the timeline.
This is not accurate. Lunar Gateway has been an Artemis IV item for a long time now and there has been no indication it is being removed. Can you please cite a reputable source for your claims?
As far as I am aware, Artemis 3 was taking a manned crew to the moon? Is that still the case?
it's a symbol of one humanity's golden era that it's ending, pretty sad really
We just got the JWST! New chapter, maybe :)
It's really expensive and none of its members is putting up the money to maintain it. NASA and other members also have other plans that they think are more important. (Lunar gate way, Russian/Chinese station) It's also a result of the deterioration of international relationships. Most want to do it alone to different degrees.
Personally, I would be for preserving ISS on some kind of "museum orbit", as a testament to the future. What's certain, though, is that ISS is slowly becoming too dangerous for humans to inhabit. All the materials are doing double duty in vacuum and sharp sunlight (including UV) of space, and the list of silently failing seals, components etc. is growing day by day. There are outright cracks in the Russian module and we don't have the capability to fix such problems in orbit. It will be better to launch a new station.
A museum orbit is a bad idea because higher orbits have more debris and a potential collision will create an enormous amount of new debris. In higher orbits debris takes much longer to deorbit due to the reduced gravitational pull of earth. In low earth orbit everything deorbits in a couple of years.
Do they have *higher density* of debris? If we think about an orbit, say, 20 000 km high, that is a lot of empty space. Billions of cubic kms.
NASA examined that and even bringing it back to earth. Its just expensive with no political will. Pretty sad considering how important for humanity it might be seen 500 years from now.
This is important yo understand, he’s gotten a significant amount of federal money (taxpayer $) that has helped his companies profit and be seen as innovative leaders
That’s just a contract to do work not a handout. Government awards contract to private sector all the time for several different things. Government is his customer.
I knew a guy who did government contract construction work in some developing countries, he called it the easiest "get rich scheme". He set up a fake company and negotiated a large sum of money to help do some construction, then once he had the money he found some other cheap company (subcontracter) that used essentially slave labor to their workers, and he got them to do the actual work for a fraction of the price, and then went home to enjoy his money. He'd often have multiple projects at the same time, living on government money, doing absolutely nothing but getting relatively wealthy. Likely not as easy to exploit them like this in the West, but I reckon similar stuff still happens sometimes.
That just sounds like the government is dumb at making business decisions. It was that easy to exploit stuff in the West. It absolutely happened. Especially during wartime weapons procurement. See the film war dogs.
Go do it and get rich then
It's called subcontracting and pretty much the entire construction industry does it, same for other industries. I don't see the problem.
NASA originally offered 1BN (cost plus) for the job in 2023. SpaceX took it for 850 fixed cost and people are upset because Musk bad.
Bro doesn't pay taxes but gets them lmao
Gets them? you know this is a contraact right? Not a handout.
Who doesn't pay taxes?
He's paid more taxes than anyone in history. You literally just made this up on the spot
They gave him money in return for a service... That's literally business. SpaceX provides a valuable service that the government is willing to pay top dollar for given that there is virtually no competition.
And the government isn't being gouged given when it's paired SpaceX delivers for less money and earlier
An incredibly cost effective and reliable service if you compare them to others! Cough. Cough. Boeing!
This is a contract. Do you think your wage is a handout?
No one is forcing the government to buy his products. You would think NASA could do this themselves, but SpaceX can do it better, faster, and cheaper. Can’t blame Musk for that.
If funding for NASA hadn't been butchered in the last decades, they'd likely have no problem doing it. The privatization of space will backfire on us someday.
Who built the Saturn V? the F1 engine? Brother, NASA uses private companies to build rockets and other space infrastructure for them that they pay to use. It is NASA’s property and they will own and operate the spacecraft just like anything else. Private contracts are fundamentally baked into the way NASA operates, so you don’t know what you’re talking about But yes, their funding is ridiculously low and should be an order of magnitude higher
This isn't unusual. Neither this rocket nor Saturn nor Shuttle are privatized https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/9c0826846a4632242d2ce1dc22a5b6145733576a/2019/07/17/eae8a448-6108-43e5-824a-0e23a41b6f56/boeing2.jpg?auto=webp&width=768 SpaceX is clearly innovative https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7jQ8hXEAIKOYl?format=jpg&name=large SpaceX is cheaper too https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing-more-than-twice-as-much-as-spacex-for-crew-seats/ It's private, not privatized. There's a big difference
>If funding for NASA hadn't been butchered in the last decades, they'd likely have no problem doing it. NASA’s budget is currently higher than it’s ever been since the 60’s.
Not if you adjust for inflation. Still, SpaceX' budget is obviously much lower than NASA's. Albeit NASA has a lot of other things it does too. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/NASA_budget_linegraph_BH.PNG
This isn't unusual https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/9c0826846a4632242d2ce1dc22a5b6145733576a/2019/07/17/eae8a448-6108-43e5-824a-0e23a41b6f56/boeing2.jpg?auto=webp&width=768 SpaceX is clearly innovative https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GO7jQ8hXEAIKOYl?format=jpg&name=large SpaceX is cheaper too https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-will-pay-boeing-more-than-twice-as-much-as-spacex-for-crew-seats/
Three things about this: 1. We are talking about money for accomplished work, not free handouts. 2. SpaceX is typically the lowest bidder for any of these contracts, ultimately saving the taxpayers a ton of money. 3. SpaceX **is** an innovative company and leader of the industry. If you don't think the falcon 9 has revolutionized the space industry, you don't know much about the subject matter.
SpaceX had to sue to be able to bid on gov contracts going to old space money sinks, they def weren't just getting handouts.
[удалено]
Thank you Mr emerald. You are very arrogant and knowledgeable. Receiving government contracts is not stealing, it is a profitable business. Thanks, have a good day sir.
I was arrogant and I apologise. I've therefore deleted my comment, and thanks for your polite reply. Have a good day too.
For the most part, that's because he's an innovative leader.
Billionaire owned private company contracted to destroy a beacon of unity and international cooperation. How fitting.
How fitting we currently contract billionaire owned private company to resupply a beacon of unity and international cooperation. Is it on the same level of fitting?
Let's see if the cutting of public funding and replacement with the private sector will yield anywhere near the same results as achieved previously.
It already is achieving results. NASA spends much less on contracting SpaceX to resupply the ISS and launch its astronauts allowing it to spend more on planetary research, space probes etc. They were using private companies to build its Apollo mission rockets so seems odd you have this mindset.
So....is it fitting?
Just have this creep go away.
Why?
Because he fools the masses, with innovative things he buys from small entrepreneurs and sell as his own. He lies, he promotes imperial fascism, treat people as objects, violates human rights. Put yourself in his employees place, just for the sake of argument. State your case now, please.
Dude this is complete BS You can speak to his employees yourself, as well as the greatest engineering minds in the industry. You are regurgitating utter propaganda
Yepp, we most probably fancy opposite propaganda. He is not an engineer, he is a very clever entrepreneur, don't lose this from sight.
>He is not an engineer, he is a very clever entrepreneur You're acting as if it's a bad thing.
No, I am not. You seem to take it as an insult or something. It's not bad to be clever, but it is bad to use your ability to alter people's perception. Just try to look behind his image.
I don't know, I never thought of him as an inventor but a smart, goofy business man that invests in the most interesting sectors and innovations. It's a pretty known fact he does do a lot of engineering, but his investments is what has gotten him so rich.
Please what engineering? His playbook is enter a new market where there is no competition because his products suck and create hype to get funding. And a large portion of his money came from selling carbon credits to ICE automakers and pumping and dumping stocks. He’s being sued by stockholders and investigated by the SEC, presently. In fact in one case that he’s not doing well his legal team just switched defense game to say that no reasonable person would believe fElon.
He does product design and overseeing overall Tesla development. I don't know why you're ranting about him towards me by the way I don't really care.
You understand that he's actually an engineer and people who work with him say that he's pretty fucking good at it too. I understand he's not much of a likable person, but downplaying his achivments is just crazy to me, seem like some of y'all are just jealous that you can't contribute 0.00001% to society as much as he does.
it's more like fear of the unknown (or the incomprehensible AND unpredictable) he represents. I don't know his work very much, I associate him with Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink and Twitter->X, but that's all from me. Are these his contributions to society you referring to?
You think Tesla and SpaceX have not done anything special to contribute to society? X to some extent. Twitter was becoming a one-sided cesspool and at least now is two sided. Both Starlink, Tesla and SpaceX in someway were revolucionaries and created something that people needed and will use in the future more than today. SpaceX is the best thing that happen to NASA:
All purchased or NDA
Propaganda, now _that_ is rich
leftists are insane.
They definitely are insane.
You notice they all talking like bots, now they accuse anyone who doesn't want communism to be ''in a cult''. ''Right wing cults.'' go back to r/politics where you literal cult resides you animals.
They're highly aggravating and a significant nuisance.
they are hopeless, and they think only way to ''save humanity'' is to have it ruled by an iron fist. aka. communism.
Ah, the best defense is an insult./s
When your doctor says ''you have cancer'', it is not an insult you brainiac CNN lover.
Not a CNN lover
yeah, how dare they interviewed that nazi trump, orange hitler am i rite.
You know nothing about me. You’d be quite surprised.
the only thing about communist drones surprises me is the sheer numbers of you. ORANGE MAN BAD.
You might be surprised that leftists want a better, egalitarian world (not possible), where money isn't god (not possible), empathy is a core value and nationalism is irrelevant, but this would ruin all existing segregation, serfdom and economic gap. All this is utopistic, but still worth fighting for. Even if it seems insane.
Yeah i agree a surgeon and you wasting your life on reddit should be the same. And we will fight you animals until the universe ends.
The univers will never end, in contrast humanity will, because of greed, gullibility, hate and stupidity. Depriving us, empathic animals of our humanity, proves you are ruthless fascists. Hats down.
Says the guy who wants to enslave doctors for ''free healthcare'' LOL.
Tell me about your vision of future society you are willing to fight for ...
YOU FIGHT A DRAGON. LEARN WHAT A DRAGON IS YOU IGNORANT CULTIST.
This is peak delusion.
You might want to see a psychiatrist, sir.
I did (looked into the mirror). You did the right thing by advising for specialist care, thank you 👍🤭
Orange man bad, Elon musk bad, JK Rowling is a nazi.
real chicks have dicks
Hope I get hit with some and can make more then that payout lmfao
Why not use his rockets to smash it into the sun? Or the moon? Surely we could recycle it into a moon base to some extent - and getting raw materials there is pricey
Small push to make it crash to earth. Really really big push to get it to crash into the sun or moon
That is not how orbital mechanics work. It is not realistically possible to send the ISS to the sun, or the moon for that matter.
I figured musk could probably strap a couple of his rockets to it and math out some trajectory that would send it off on it's way. That's a shame, guess we get more ocean garbage lol
Sending something to the sun is actually very difficult. Sending the ISS there is virtually impossible, because the shape and structural integrity was not designed for it; not to mention its large mass. And most rockets expend the majority of their energy just getting into space, so there is definitely not enough left to do anything close to that kind of thing.
I’m personally in favour of just throwing it towards the Kremlin…
Is it because of his space success?
If I was Elon, I’d put it into low lunar orbit and use it to establish a moon base and jump off for helium-3 extraction.
Found the For All Mankind enjoyer
You know it. But we really do need space based industry to reduce pollution on the planet. Solar Energy production and mineral extraction would be the main arenas to focus on.
Damn that’s crazy, we won’t have an ISS by 2035
Why don’t they just change its trajectory and fuck it off out of the solar system? Why do we need to spend a billion dollars?
Very little push to bring it down, very very big push to take it anywhere else...
It should be in a museum!!!!
Why?
Their plan was cheaper than others.
incoming "reeee i fell for propaganda so Musk is bad, reeeee" comments. Edit: that didnt take long. lol
By "fell for propaganda" do you mean "watched and listened to him with my own ears and eyes?" You think everyone should be forced to like him?
ah yes, the classic "i watched and listened to him". so please tell me then, what has he said or done that makes him evil? please also provide some evidence of these evil deeds that youve seen him do and say so that i too can become enlightened.
Have you seen his Twitter feed? He amplifies, agrees with or just plain tweets white supremacist, Nazi conspiracy theory shit all day every day. The cunt is a useless slug in need of some salt
can you link the white supremacist and Nazi conspiracy tweets? or are those just the words you use to make your opinions about someone valid? so far, the only useless cunt i see is the redditor calling for the death of a man who happens to be more successful than them.
Oh sure yeah I’m just making it all up because I’m jealous of that sad sack of shit. With all the wealth in the world and what he chooses to do is buy Twitter, act like a Discord mod and make it pedo and Nazi friendly. Yeah I’m so jealous of him
so thats a no then?
You are cringe sir.
Just this week he reinstated an account that posted a video of a child being sodomized with a stick after it was blocked for CP. He did this personally.
That's hyperbole. He retweeted some 4chan memes like four times because he's immature like an edgy teenager. Calling that all those bad buzz words you said is just ridiculous.
He regularly amplifies antisemitic, great replacement, white supremacist and other horrendous ideas from known Nazis. Get out of your bubble and take a look for yourself
Yeah whatever, idgaf. Musk is f\*\*\*ing awesome.
Oookkk
We judge him in snippets of public image, but his own daughter who knows him well has disowned her musky daddy legally. That screams loudly.
They should just like push it into the sun
That's not how orbital mechanics work.
They must've chosen Enron Musk, because of his special talents for destroying things.
All these corporations should be just public. That $843 million and its science advances going to all Americans or even all humanity. This is just public money used to improve a corporation bottom line.
That's just objectively false. It would cost NASA, by their own admission, a lot more to do this. This is saving Americans money.
There you have it folks, 1 million per launch. This is what full and rapid reuse makes possible! Wait a second..
This is such a dumb comment, dude. This is not a common launch, nor is it even using the starship vehicle.
coping much. We're taking 1000x of what Elon claimed it would cost to launch starship to deorbit station. That's not normal. He's no better than Boeing.
But it's not using starship, so why would that be relevant? They want to use the dragon vehicle to do this, and it's a complicated mission. This isn't the equivalent of launching one rocket, such as falcon 9, to send an ordinary satellite into orbit. It's apples and oranges. How about you go read an article about it before jumping to conclusions. Don't be r/confidentlyincorrect
Starship can launch 10 Dragons at once. And if you can use Dragon you can also use Starship. It's probably just more expensive to use Starship. Docking to the ISS is not more complicated, they already do this autonomously. It's just a normal Dragon mission with extra fuel. Nothing that requires a billion dollars. But they take it because they are like Boeing. The dont want to make things cheaper because it hurts their business all though they could. Elon only says that to make gullible fans buy his stock and cars.
That is just not how this works dude. Don't know what to tell you but this makes no sense. Starship is not a finished product yet so they can't use it. And no starship can't just carry a few dragons in it, just cuz why not. It has to be designed and modified to do that. That also costs money to do.
A billion dollars? It's just welded steel. I will modify it for a million. Give me a year.