Ashlee Vance discusses how a private space company broke the pattern of delays that plague most commercial ventures and is actually ready to launch hardware into orbit. The technical ambition is credible, but whether it can turn a profit remains the real test of whether private firms can truly compete with NASA.
What do you make of all this, Ashlee Vance? Okay, if you're a space dork like me, you usually walk into these places, everything is incredibly behind schedule, usually cool, but like, you know it's gonna be a long, long, long, long, long, long, long wait before anything happens. I would say these guys actually seem like they got their shit together. I've been following commercial space now, I'd say for close to like 15 years, and it's funny how things that seemed very far-fetched maybe 15 years ago now feel a lot more real. You come somewhere like this and quite clearly they're making a very serious go. They're making this happen and this thing is gonna go to space. Whether it all checks out from like a business case and people can make money from the stuff, you know, I think you have to wait and see.
