And you can get a federal tax break of $7,500 if you buy one. Not surprisingly, Musk favors a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. The Tesla Roadster has a base price of US $109,000. And the planned Model S sedan, is anticipated to begin production for the 2012 model year with a base price of US $57,400, which will also have a federal tax subsidy. This is just crony capitalism and I bet that Musk makes major contributions to the Dems and Obama. So much for the marketplace, which is being subdized by the taxpayer to help the wealthy buy high end electric cars.
The government is going to be the biggest customer regardless. Just like the defense industry, there will just be a few companies to provide these services and there will be cost overruns and cost plus contracts.
This is just a fig leaf disguising the fact that the US is in a state of decline. We are broke and there will be many painful decisions ahead. We will see the usual guns versus butter battles that mark declining powers. The welfare system is collapsing, but the left will do whatever is necessary to keep it going a little longer even if it means eviscerating defense and reducing expenditures on space exploration. You can continue to believe the fairy tale that the gutting of NASA was just a good management decision. People like Armstrong and Cernan know better.
So exactly when will Musk be putting Americans back into space?
Before NASA does. He's got most of the certification checklist stuff completed.
/johnny
Man, you really got a nut against SpaceX.
After reading your posts, I strongly recommend others review through the rest of the thread for the actual story.
Musk can put stuff in orbit for 1/10th(insert current figure here) of what NASA and the Lockheed/GD/RestoftheBigGuys can.
/johnny