“So I’ll take your comment as a compliment.”

I don’t know if compliment is the right word, but certainly in a positive fashion.

“You know what I mean with regards to commercial and what will happen with the early loss of a launch vehicle. If say Musk and SpaceX were launching 7 people spaceward, and lost everyone on board, what would happen?”

I think it will depend on what is happening in the future with everything shuttle and the heavy lift congress wants. If the SLS is still getting funded(?) but is seen as another over budget, over schedule program ready for shutdown, I think it would be a boon for congressional supporters of cost plus contracting from the usual suspects.

If the Nation wakes up and sees the SLS as another boondoggle EARLY and it doesn’t get funding anymore around the time of commercial crew is operating and an accident occurs, NASA will simply rely on Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra until the cause of the accident is figured out.

Even with a crew loss SpaceX would still be able to carry out sat launches with the F9.

“ You know what I mean with regards to commercial and what will happen with the early loss of a launch vehicle.”

The problem here Dennis is that you’re getting all worked up over issues that have not played out yet.

Has NASA defined all the requirements for commercial crew? No.

Has the FAA developed a complete set of flight rules for commercial crew? No.

Has the insurance industry figured out what level of coverage they will provide for commercial crew? Most likely no.

With the first commercial crew flight still at least 3 years away, all of this hand wringing is way too early. SpaceX, Boeing, SNC and NASA have professionals on staff that are responsible for working these issues, and the leadership of each organization is going to be overseeing this for the next 3 or more years. Nothing you’ve highlighted is new for this or any similar risky business.

Just know that accidents will happen, and some companies will survive and some won’t. If NASA were to have back to back failures I don’t think they could survive either (from a spaceflight standpoint).

“sometimes it’s hard to discern where you’re being facetious.”

Nothing ever is either black or white.

So I’ll take your comment as a compliment.

In my own awkward kind of way of course!

The government will certainly be involved, as it is with accident investigations in other transportation sectors (e.g., airliner crashes). I would imagine that the NTSB might even be in charge. But this happens all the time in other industries. There’s nothing magic about space that makes it different.

“Don’t reinforce false allegations.”

It looks like my message did not make it through.

So. It was only intended as a hypothetical answer to your hypothetical question. And playing Devil’s advocate.

I thought you’d know better by now but…

I missed.

Oh well…

“Absolutely. In any rational sector it would play that way. Not for HSF and you know it.”

Robert Kennedy once said:

“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

Maybe I’ve been lucky enough to work at places that said “take all the good you want, and invent whatever else you need”, because I don’t adhere to the “because we’ve always done it that way” line of thinking.

Human space flight today is changing because of the Shuttle retirement, and what we have a chance to do is change the paradigm of how people get to space.

If we rely on NASA, then we are one accident or one Congressional budget away from stopping space flight. If, as Vladislaw points out, we change the industry so that it becomes commercialized, then it is far more likely to succeed and grow.

I know you are not anti-commercial, and generally I concur with your views, but sometimes it’s hard to discern where you’re being facetious.

“Boeing is not using hobbyists for their rockets unlike SpaceX.”

A hobbyist is someone that is pursuing an activity done in one’s leisure time for pleasure.

That does not describe SpaceX, which is a business with a $3B customer backlog, and it certainly doesn’t even describe XCOR, Armadillo or any of the other small companies that are generating revenue as they pursue their passions.

Don’t reinforce false allegations.

“I was playing Devil’s advocate to answer Coastal Ron’s hypothesis.”

I don’t think I’m getting the intended result from my original post, so I’m fine with just dropping the whole thread.