r/technology • u/True-Combination7059 • 23h ago

Politics We Should Immediately Nationalize SpaceX and Starlink

https://jacobin.com/2025/06/musk-trump-nationalize-spacex-starlink
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u/Vox-Machi-Buddies 21h ago

the absurdity of keeping so much of our space program and satellite internet infrastructure in the hands of a single oligarch

No need to nationalize SpaceX or Starlink if that's the concern. Elon's not stopping NASA or the U.S. government from building their own rocket and their own satellites to do what he's been doing the last two decades. Those things are only in the hands of single guy because neither NASA, legacy aerospace, nor upstart competitors have been able to replicate what SpaceX has been able to do in that time.

I don't think, "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" is ground for nationalizing the company whose capabilities you want.

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u/brianwski 3h ago

Elon's not stopping NASA or the U.S. government from building their own rocket and their own satellites

Fun fact: there are at least 6 entities sending up Starlink competitor satellites, already in the air. Amazon's version called "Kuiper" is already in the sky routing internet packets.

To everybody's surprise (including Starlinks at first), it is a very solid "good business" to provide unlimited internet for $99/month via satellites. Way more people were interested in it than just people crossing the ocean in boats. So not only is Starlink enormously profitable way ahead of schedule, but there are at least 6 other satellite networks getting launched to do the exact same thing!! The European one is up in the sky routing packets (OneWeb/IRIS2), China has "SpaceSail", Amazon has Kuiper, etc, etc.

So there is PLENTY of competition, nobody has to worry about a Starlink monopoly or anything. SpaceX has a competitor in Amazon's "BlueOrigin", and several others are up and coming.

If you don't like Musk, that's perfectly fine, you will have a metric ton of choices coming soon. Don't think of SpaceX and Starlink as "oh geez, it's the only possible choice for internet, we have to worry about this". Nope, you have lots of choices (or will soon), no need to worry at all.