“Yes they’ve done these things, and yes they fall orders of magnitude short of what Elon talks about…”

I don’t know what alternate universe Elon Musk you are listening to, but the one in THIS universe is talking about doing these exact things.

“…which in turn falls orders of magnitude away from what many fans impute to or expect of the company.”

I would be classified as a SpaceX fan, and Musk is doing EXACTLY what I think he should be doing.

Your problem is that you have no idea how much work is involved in doing something even as small as building the Falcon 1 rocket. There is a reason SpaceX has no competitors is because it is DAMN HARD to not only build a company that can build a rocket that works (and their’s didn’t for the first four launches), but also bring in enough money to evolve to a stable operating level (what they should reach in 2013).

I would imagine you are also miffed that Musk is not pursuing a “satellite only” strategy that you think is the only viable market in space, so that probably informs your “sour grapes” attitude to what SpaceX is actually accomplishing. Luckily Musk is an accomplished businessman, whereas you are just a Googaw on a space blog…

In the meantime, I just want to say again that I am happy that US sat manufacturers will have a low launch cost available.

“As for what SpaceX has actually gotten done I give much more credit to Shotwell and their talented engineers than to Musk.”

You obviously don’t know the roles of C-level management. The role of the President is to run the day to day operation of the company, and to prepare for what the plan for the future is. The plan for the future – the strategic direction of the company – is usually set by the CEO, who in the case of SpaceX just happens to also be their Chief Designer. And SpaceX, more than most companies, is defined by what Elon Musk wants the company to do.

“Musk’s press fantasies about Martian retirements and Falcon Heavy and reusable rockets and on and on have not contributed to getting any actual spacecraft on orbit.”

Hard to see anything when you have your eyes closed.

The Grasshopper testbed has already proven it’s reusable, since it has already flown twice. If you can’t see the trend line on that one, then you are truly blind.

Falcon Heavy already has a paying customer, and their west coast launch facility for it is getting close to being finished. Again, if you can’t see the trend line on that one, then you are truly blind.

As to your “have not contributed to getting any actual spacecraft on orbit” comment, each of those two projects are for future customer needs, and both directly focus on lowering the cost to access space in a very significant way.

You claim to support such goals (i.e. lower costs), but I guess you are against companies actually spending money on trying to achieve them? Not only weird, but bizarre.

As to his plans for reaching Mars, what Musk is doing is providing a specific goal for the direction of SpaceX. Many companies don’t do this, but you can’t say you don’t know what Elon plans to do in 15-30 years. If they do an IPO, no one is going to be able to say they didn’t know what the ultimate goal of the company was. Like it or not (and I know where you stand on that), it’s pretty gutsy.

“Yes, I know what is going on. I’m a long-time shareholder in both SpaceX and in one of their customers.”

Being a shareholder of either SpaceX or one of it’s customers means you get an annual report of public information, NOT insider information (which is illegal).

And as others have pointed out, SpaceX is not a public company, so unless you are Elon, one of his investors, or an employee that is part of the stock & option pool, you aren’t a “long-time shareholder” of SpaceX.

Regardless, I didn’t ask for your bona fides, I asked for your proof. But as usual, you didn’t provide any references or convincing evidence that you know anything about anything. What a surprise…

“Prospective customers certainly have this full choice (albeit minus the choice to avoid being taxed to fund via NASA these subsidies and fantasies).”

What “tax”? If you want a Falcon 9 to launch your payloads, the current price is $54M paid in full. What part of that is the “tax”? The $60M they wouldn’t be paying to someone else? You don’t make sense.

“Current customers don’t have so much of a choice because they are already listed on SpaceX’s manifest.”

Apparently you don’t keep up with the stories in the press. Most launch customers order backup services from other launch providers, and they have opt-out clauses in their contracts. That means they can opt for another launch provider anytime they want – there is no gun to their head, no reason they can’t leave. More figment of your hyperactive imagination.

“Unfortunately, Falcon is now being redesigned to deal with NASA safety paranoia. The latest NASA-induced delay of the Falcon 9 due to the engine failure from which the flight readily recovered is only the latest example.”

Yes, customers don’t care when things go wrong with a transportation provider they plan to use… what a maroon!

Look, you are free to claim whatever you want, but it’s apparent that you haven’t convinced anyone you know anything yet. So instead of your usual hand waving and Chicken Little zombie routine, how about you provide some verifiable facts, OK?