I think that shutting down and giving the reigns to the private sector is the smartest thing that NASA has done in decades. A former astronaut who is now a private developer has made plans for a nuclear engine space ship that could reach Mars in 39 days. Orbital prototype testing as early as 2016 and if all goes well, a manned mission to Mars before 2030. Sadly, I doubt I'll be able to go on one of those missions.
I say we created a plan B for getting off this big Rock should the worst ever happen.
Create a group of the worlds smartest scientists to create an earth protection organization that works to find technological solutions to things that threaten the survival of this plan.
meteors,solar flares,Super volcanoes,gamma ray bursts,black holes,etc stuff like that.
The problem with conservatives is that they assume that just because most liberals are anti-capitalist, and they are against liberals, they are the best defenders of capitalism and the free market. Unfortunately, that's not a well grounded assertion. Even Bill cannot get away from the idea that there should still be some government agency, some "lean, mean, stripped down NASA," in charge of technology development and the official guidance of research. Economic superstitions die hard.
Strangely enough one of NASA's reasons for ending their space programme was because increasingly the private sector are doing what NASA used to do with sending up satellites and such.
Simply put Obama isn't the one you can blame this on, he simply realised that a state-run space agency is becoming less cost effective in a field which private companies are beginning to fill. Any sensible president would have weighed the cost of running the shuttle-replacement against its usefulness.
If these private industry aerospace companies are so good,why haven't they been able to achieve what NASA did? Land people on the moon, then I'll believe that the private companies are as good as NASA.
Emotionally moving, absolutely beautiful-- Bill, you've made a grown man literally come to tears with hope, joy, and inspiration. I realized this very thing independently before viewing, but hearing you put into words, well, .. I sincerely appreciate. Thank you.
Mr Whittle, when you said "our space station" it brought a smile to my face- it's the INTERNATIONAL space station, good sir, at least that's the one you showed an image of. The only country to ever have its own space station was the Soviet Union / Russia, with the Mir project. Also, I love the quiet, discreet way in which you said "hitch a ride." I think it could really use some emphasis, since most of you Americans won't know it's OUR rockets that bring your astronauts home.
Which clause of the Constitution allows NASA, again? It has nothing to do with our fiscal position, nor interstate or international commerce, nor citizenship, nor currency, nor making fake money, nor post communication or transportation, nor protecting the ownership of ideas and inventions for a period of time, nor court, nor piracy, nor the military with the exception of missile designs, nor Washington, DC, nor slavery, nor civil rights. What allows NASA constitutionally?
@Halo4Lyf If it were that it still should not exist. Businesses, especially doing something as dangerous as space exploration where one small error can be fatal, will lose money if they screw up. They don't need a government agency to burden them even more.
@audioblogs12 No, but you do need someone expecting cargo so that Iranian "communications company" that contracts some space on a heavy-lift vehicle doesn't ship a nuke into LEO over the US.
This is Fantastic News. I was torn over losing NASA although I always knew it was Unconstitutional but still accepted it over other Illegal Govt. agencies because I thought it was the only Agency capable of advancements that only Space Flight can bring. Bless You you have shown me I was incorrect and should have trusted the American Spirit and Exceptionalism to prevail beyond that of NASA. Loved the Rocket powered Cozy too, the Home Built Aircraft for folks with a adventurous nature, like me.
A raving ideologue calling the Apollo program un-american? Give me a break. The dogma that gives the US the worst health coverage in the western world, being applied to space travel? Someone is going to die for your hubris. Mark my words.
@lettucemonster American health care is half-socialist as the government pays for 50% of health care costs. People weren't walking over corpses in the streets before the US government intervened in health care. Thousands die each year in countries with 'free' health care. Google "What's Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry by Vijay Boyapati" and get educated.
@truevoice08 So not having read whatever conspiracy theory drivel you are promoting makes me 'uneducated'? Wake up and join the rest of western civilisation.
@truevoice08 No. Being unwilling to waste my time on your fringe lunacy does not make me a 'retard'. One day, when you have perhaps grown out of this fringe lunacy, you will learn to accept that people can disagree with you without being stupid.
@lettucemonster Well, now I can conclude that you are a retard or at least uneducated since all you can do is resort to smears like 'conspiracy theorist' or 'fringe'. Face it, you ain't got no facts, no logic, and that makes you angry. :))
@truevoice08 Its not a smear - your sources are NOT credible. Face it - NASA went to the Moon on public money, nothing comparable has been done with private money. That is a fact, you know the thing you (incorrectly) claim I do not have on my side. What you need to do, in order to grow up and become a rational person, is to start being more skeptical of fringe ideologies.
@lettucemonster "Face it - NASA went to the Moon on public money" Anybody can get to the moon when you get funding from government. It's like if you give me a million dollars I'll bake you a really good cake. Government has no cost-benefit analysis unlike the private sector. Everything the government has it took from private sector production. It seems you don't know a thing about the 'fringe' ideology you are criticizing.
Private enterprise works because if it fails it meets its own demise. If government fails, then its just takes more of the tax payer's money. Government doesn't care about efficiency or waste because it doesn't have fiscal constraints.
@SirTorment There is money to made in the space industry. It's a great untouched potential for market expansion. For instance, already, communication companies utilize satellites for services. More and more technology is relying on wireless communication (The Cloud, GPS, internet,...). Satellite technology is vital and rapidly becoming more important in the communications industry. What about travel? While in it's infancy travel in space is ideal in many respects.
@1czelaya Sort of see where you be coming from but..you sorta sum'rised it when you be saying that it's in "its infancy". Sure, if a space company met aliens, yeah, they'd make the shiny stuff. But like, it's all very much a huge risk. Very high price. No forseeable profit. Comms industry is good, but like, that's not really the kind of space EXPLORATION i'm talking about, the kind which does need govt funding if you be wan'ing to see a man be on the moon.
@SirTorment In the video above, space travel is the main initiative. Why? As of right now, it's too expensive with current propulsion system. Markets are dynamical & always evolving. Traveling to other continents in space has two huge benefits. Once in space, drag & the need for fuel are almost diminished entirely. Thus it's a logical step forward for travel. The potential for advancement for this type of travel has enormous implications for markets if the price is brought down.
@1czelaya I see where you're coming from. How would you propose the government foster this private innovation and investment, since more clearly needs to be happening than at present.
@SirTorment That's a tougher question but there's one factor that should be heavily considered-government intervention in the form of subsidies. I'm stating this because, for the most part, any time a new novel technology is brought into fruition, if subsidized, cost sky rocket. One really good example is nuclear energy. It was supposed to be the nascent panacea of energy. It's become incredibly costly and time consuming.
@SirTorment Until the cost of space travel is lower than the current cost of travel-this particular market wont hit critical mass. However it's slowly getting there. This type of technology is so intertwined with so many other industries that they key may not be with propulsion but with strong, light, novel materials (alloys, nanotechnology, ceramics,...). Markets are unpredictable but when things finally emerge, markets grow ferociously because consumers take interest.
@SirTorment There is one aspect of technology that is incredible if it's driven by markets and not subsidized. Prices always come down because someone wants to make a good or service cheaper by a margin. This process is incremental but over a short period brings prices down. This is why LED televisions cost $4K-$5K when they first came out and now can be purchased for way under a $1K at Walmart and they're more reliable. Markets do this without government intervention.
@SirTorment Look at the aviation industry. Within a short period of time look at how private enterprise evolved ferociously. Once entrepreneur create the methods for intercontinental space travel, it's only a matter of time before the technology becomes cheaper, better, and more efficient to make the next logical step to interplanetary travel. You mention profit in space-the potential does exist for mining, energy havesting, and colonization of planets.
@SirTorment Most importantly, markets do it more efficiently, faster, & more cost effective. Why? Because cost is paramount. Governments, for the most part, don't care about cost. Profits are an incredible systems of checks & balances because it FORCES you to do the most with the least amount & creates innovation. This is why the USPS is collapsing and UPS is thriving. It's profit that has made UPS & FEDEX cheaper, more innovative, provide better services, and constantly evolve.
@1czelaya Yeah, some fair arguments there, some, I still doubt that businesses will be prepared to just make huge leaps to find new planets etc. I think the best thing for space is for the government to make a space station in outerspace, thereby making it easy to travel from point to point. I didn't really like your argument on subsidies though -- I mean, that seems a bit ironic to be in favour of free markets and subsidies...not to mention costly.
I've probably watched this video two dozen times by now, and it's still my pick-me-up. I absolutely tingle with anticipation at what the next 10 years in space will yield... provided we can keep the same people that killed the Constellation project from killing everything else.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
LOL what the shit, I dont want to see that private sector puts Britney Spears on the moon.
Dont be idiot, these companies target to get rich into space and get them pay for it. There is nothing bold about it.
What a brainwash video! And those private sector companies based on NASA technology. And we dont need manned space exploration. We need unmanned probes for scientific progress!
Everything you said was so incredibly devoud of facts and has absolutely nothing to do with this video.
"And we dont need manned space exploration. We need unmanned probes for scientific progress"
Spoken like a true government bot. Well, while the government is building unmanned probs with billions of tax dollars. private industry will be putting men on the moon/mars with their OWN money -and do it cheaper.
Please read the 5000 year leap. IT will change your life.
a) what are the financial incentives to pursue "mundane" yet important topics such as water on mars and the moons of saturn?
b) Isn't the reason why the private sector space ventures are so much cheaper because they built upon the complex research originally carried out by NASA?
"Isn't the reason why the private sector space ventures are so much cheaper because they built upon the complex research originally carried out by NASA?"
You got it backwards. Did NASA create the rocket? The computer? The electronics, transistors, various metals, and a million other technologies it took to lift a rocket to space? No. In fact, NASA uses private contractors for many - if not the majority - of it's technology. And most of it's employees are from private companies.
The Government does nothing right? How about ARPANET, which paved the way for the internet? I believe in the profit motive but lets not take it too far. I hate when the government privatizes things only the government should do. My biggest pet peeve is prisons. Look up "judge Mark Ciavarella".
@joshuancts ARPANET was only 4000 servers when the government unplugged it and stopped funding it. Since then the last possible number 156 million websites are available and 1/3 of the planet is online. Neither of these things would be possible if Uncle Sam was there. Plus, I'll consider the work of the Internet by the government, if you'll consider it's growth without its intervention.
He didn't say that. An OVERBEARING gov only causes more problems and hindered innovation.
As for your ridiculous assertion of the net. Why do you think the net as we know it exists? Private individuals can implement their ideas and make profit. Do you think their would ever be a youtube under ARPANET? The internet became what it is thanks to private individuals. If the gov still controlled the net, it would still be ARPANET.
And do you know why? Because unlike private individuals, the gov has no incentive to innovate and grow the net. In fact, what if the gov hadn't stopped funding it and prevented citizens from using it? (It was funded for military use after all). Think about it. Everything the internet is wouldn't exist. And it would still be the same efficient junk it was under ARPANET. Every single innovation and advancement was made by private indivisuals.
And to expand further, why do you think everyone in developed nations have computers? Would that be so without the internet? And compare a new PC with a PC that's only 5 years old. Why do you think computing tech is advancing so quickly? And consider everything that wouldn't exist w/o the net. How many companies (and millions of jobs) are based of the net?
The internet is the poster child for free market capitalism. When government's reach into the market is limited, innovation occurs. It's no coincidence that humanity has advanced more in the last 200 years than in the previous 5000. That's when the free market was first truly instituted in the US. And it's no coincidence that the US is the leading nation in technological advancement.
Sorry for the string of posts. Youtube's comment section sucks. Hopefully they'll innovate it
I think the private sector is more capable of producing better products and service if there is a profit motivator. If there is no profit than investors have no motivation to push the envelope of innovation. Personal profit is the motivator behind growth in every-way. If we can monitize space exploration, someone will leverage it.
Remember that was the same with aviation. It wasn't the government that brought the innovation, it was pioneers. Hughes, Junkers (who built the first full-metal aircraft), Dornier. The first flying wing was designed pre-WW1 by a German engineer (not sure if it was Junkers of Dornier right now.)
Great story Bill. Thank you so much. I never made the connection between NASA's failure and the big government effect on all things financial before. I'm greatly encouraged.
As someone who had been deeply involved in the space industry in college, thank you so much for this video. I'm very excited to see where this new space industry leads.
I wish you were right in saying that these private sector programs cannot be stopped Bill...but you know as well as I that all it would take would be some unelected, unaccountable idiot in the EPA to declare that what is going on is harming the planet, or endangering a 2 inch segmented worm in the Mohave to have them come in and shut it down...until those funding it were persuaded to contribut to someone with pull who could call the EPA dogs off. *sigh* I turned 9 3 days after the moon landing
@deadlyh 160 years ago Frédéric Bastiat explained that a technological improvement at a coal mine will reduce costs. The miner won't pass the savings on at first, giving him more profit as a just reward. At some point the secret will out, the patent will expire, or a competitor will develop alternate technology. Then COMPETITION ensures that the buyer has other options. The first miner has to lower his price, benefitting society. Eventually it's competition which makes the research available.
@TheLordLondo What exactly is wrong with MONEY MONEY MONEY, especially when it is being put into a cause like opening the high frontier of space? I would rather have MONEY MONEY MONEY-grubbing entrepreneurs and a chance for my kids, and maybe even myself to venture beyond the Earth, than your "Starfleet Principles" and nothing more elevating than reruns of a 1960's space opera.
Awesome video, Bill, not to mention an awesome nation and an awesome future. So much recent science fiction takes a pessimistic view of the possibility of the human exploration and colonization of outer space, but you are outlining a brighter-than-Heinlein future that is not on the drawing boards, but on the test stand now, and soon ...
o/~ ... gotta wear shades! o/~
Thanks for posting, Bill. I've been a long-time fan of your work on PJTV.
RIDICULOUS. The private sector would just want MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. They would not know "Starfleet principals", period. You sound like a propogandist for Wall Street.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
RIDICULOUS. The private sector would just want MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. They would not know "Starfleet principals", period. You sound like a propogandist for Wall Street.
@TheLordLondo This one takes the cake so far! You will be pleased to know that Your Federal Government, which took $10,000,000,000 of your money at gunpoint, and produced a single suborbital flight of a surplus shuttle SRB (which collided with the payload and suffered a parachute failure) is not interested in MONEY MONEY MONEY like the private guys who did 3x more a 1/30th the cost! The government is run on "STARFLEET PRINCIPALS!" Principles, perhaps? Starfleet Principals kept Kirk in demerits.
@BillWhittleChannel On top of that, NASA is horrendously bad at project management. The Space Shuttles, when they were proposed, were supposed to make 40-50 flights a year. They barely made 5 flights a year, not including the voids of flights following the Challenger and Columbia disasters. NASA often makes decisions not based on sound engineering principles, but on politics. The launch of Challenger on that fateful day was purely based on politics. Why? Because....
@BillWhittleChannel contined...because NASA rarely suffers for its mistakes. Individuals may feel terrible about the deaths they caused due to their reckless decisions, but private businesses who suffer the consequences of their decisions are far more prudent than those who are insulated from the results of their decisions. That's why government needs to get out of anything we deem of value and importance. Even, to some degree, defense.
@BillWhittleChannel I would think that if a private company discovered an alien civilization, it would be doing its absolute best to promote peace... and trade. After all, it's their ships governments would be buying. They would be promoting peace and trade throughout the galaxy, and making an obscene amount of money doing it. I'm just trying to contemplate how much taxes that would deliver to governments. It could probably pay for health care for everyone in the world, and then some.
" The private sector would just want MONEY, MONEY, MONEY"
Yeah, unlike governments, who are filled with Platonic philosopher bureaucrats with hearts the size of Saturn and brains the size of Jupiter who are just looking for your best interests, and will never take a penny that doesn't belong to them! Oh wait, what was that? Oh, I see. Another brain-dead economically illiterate cookie-cutter statetard. Nothing to see here. Move along, folks.
Stunning video! Private enterprise vs government bureaucracy... Go figure! Think about what could be done if everything was done w/out the govt involved, like the Founding Fathers had intended!
There is no doubt that the private sector can do it cheaper if for no other reason than Musk or Bigelow can make a decision and boom, that's it. Move on. Also they have a profit motive which, well, need I elaborate. i have great hopes. ' Destination Moon' lives!
Of course NASA has used private contractors since Apollo, but as Bill said on a cost plus basis with top-down decision making. This virtually guarantees high costs and not-invented- here management.
Bill, I would challenge the claim that Apollo was a "government program". Although we paid for it, the ingenuity and creativity came from private businesses (Hughes, Grumman, McDonnell, Rocketdyne, Douglas, etc) who competed for the contracts.
One quibble - we might be better off if people wrote their congressmen and begged them to look the other way. Clearly these efforts are better off without them.
Bill, Look up the Freedom rocket. It is made by the contractor that was doing all of the work for NASA on the Ares rocket. They are now selling it to the ESA.
First, it doesn't exist - only PowerPoint at this point.
Second, its only capable of launching 20 metric tons, a capability we already have - or is exceeded by using Atlas V or Delta IV Heavy.
Third, if you want to build something it should be Falcon 9 Heavy - 32 metric tons with all kerosene or much more with the Raptor 2nd stage - both of which SpaceX has in active development.
First, it doesn't exist - only PowerPoint at this point.
Second, its only capable of launching 20 metric tons, a capability we already have - or is exceeded by using Atlas V or Delta IV Heavy.
Third, if you want to build something it should be Falcon 9 Heavy - 32 metric tons with all kerosene or much more with the Raptor 2nd stage - both of which SpaceX has in active development.
@docmordrid For some context--70 metric tons is roughly equivalent to a fully loaded semi truck and max-length trailer. You can do a lot with a 70 ton capacity.
Outstanding. It brought tears to my eyes. This is why those of us in the New Space industry are busting our collective butts out here in the high desert. Just outstanding
The problem isn't that NASA is a government programme - it's that it's subject to constant government *intervention*. If you keep changing the goalposts halfway through the game, you'll f*ck it up no matter what your intentions may be. Give NASA a clear goal, keep Congress from interfering.
This is one of the more inspiring videos I've seen online in a while. The economy, the burden that the government puts on our lives, and the future feels so bleak. But people choosing to succeed despite the government. It's great.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Its All SMOKE and FOG. Private companies have been making wild promises for years and they have nothing to show for it. Space X is building their Rockets with NASA money so they can send RICH people on orbital joy Rides. NONE of these start ups will get us back to the Moon.
If Science is the motivation for these FOR PROFIT companies where are their Mars Rovers and missions to Saturn? NASA has done very well in that business.
The Shuttle and ISS were a REPUBLICAN Idea. And it failed.
China will be funding its own space program but their program depends on western innovation to get it done.
By defunding NASA we will release a lot of engineering knowledge, talent and creativity which is currently locked away in a very expensive welfare program.
@ 6m38s, we see a rocket (apparently a Falcon 9) with red digits on the right side of the frame. That's a film camera that's part of government equipment at the range, used for NASA & Air Force launches, but are you sure that's a Falcon 9? I haven't seen this view before. Do you have a source for that footage?
Did anybody tell Bill that the move to commercialize NASA and its launch vehicles came from President Obama's Administration? The people who are against commercializing NASA are GOP Congressmen who are only interested in tech jobs in their districts, not America's preeminence in space.
I was at the first civilian manned space flight at Mojave Space Port a few years back, and it was clear then, private sector space flight was the cost effective future. I worked with Burt Rutan on a couple of aerospace programs, and his genius paved the way; but the real missed point here is America Investing In America and its entrepreneurs, innovators, creators. So the disservice here is this vid irresponsibly mistakes cost-reimbursement or Fixed Price contract types as a "cause." They're not.
NASA does a huge amount of work that isn't just about exploring space, or manned space flights. As excellent as this vid is, and the many salient observations it makes, for those in the know, the problem isn't the large aerospace companies, it is the parochial bureaucratic ineffectual culture of NASA and the requirements they drive down, and how the manage; the Boeing's and Lockheeds desire to always perform under budget and on schedule, NASA gets in the way.
thanks to zachary levi for posting this but even more thanks to bill whittle for perfectly summarizing what needs to be said. my only hope is that this video is the start of some change that will get us to that final frontier.
So Heinlein got it right after all, even if he didn't know it. But won't we have the same problem? Aren't there treaties that limit what we can do out there?
4:40 "just like a cat!" LOL I would love to have a cat that could do all that. Great video though. I can't wait until the first company makes profit fro
@azjeff1971 The People of NASA are some of the best. It's the actual organization that's become an unwieldy behemoth and bureaucracy. It's just the nature of government organizations.
if I recall correctly, bill whittle used to be on the wrong team supporting constellation. thank sweet baby jesus he has come around. because this is just the kind of production that we've needed... for years. before obama's FY11 got carved up into pork constellation 2.0: stealth edition. lets just hope it is not too late for people like bill to come around to what is really going on.
he called a spade a spade. nasa is a jobs program. say it together with me now. nasa is a jobs program.
Low earth orbit. Too bad my father isn't still alive, he was a combustion instability expert from Cal Tech, got his masters in about 1953, ranked #1 or 2 in the field. Alas the local college (Sierra JC Rocklin CA) didn't think he was qualified to teach engineering! I can't even list all the designs he did, ah well not as bad as sending him into the infantry dring WWII AFTER he was accepted into Cal Tech, welcome to the USA!
Government's job is to open the frontier by doing the riskiest, iconic yet nonprofitable tasks like the first trip to the moon or to mars. As soon as companies can invent business plans and attract investors let them have at it! Government and old defense industry run with the leaders or get out of the way. Understand your market and serve it well: there's PLENTY of this to go around!
We have computers like my lap top today because a guy in a garage though he could build one and people would buy it, Your cell phone has way more computer power than the computers they used to fly to the moon. The hanger rats are going to be the ones that are going to come up with the Technology to go to Mars and beyond, and guess what at some point they will make a pile of money doing it. Just like Steve Jobs did in his garage. It was not all that long ago .
I watched this with tears in my 63 year old eyes, and remembered lost dreams from my past, seeing them renewed and bloom from seemingly dead roots, with total amazement at what is happening in the private sector that I was totally unaware of.
Here's something about why America is awesome: WE HAVE A FRAKING SPACEPORT.
dimensionalnumber 3 days ago
I think that shutting down and giving the reigns to the private sector is the smartest thing that NASA has done in decades. A former astronaut who is now a private developer has made plans for a nuclear engine space ship that could reach Mars in 39 days. Orbital prototype testing as early as 2016 and if all goes well, a manned mission to Mars before 2030. Sadly, I doubt I'll be able to go on one of those missions.
GremlinsAndGnomes 1 week ago
aeiou
helper769 2 weeks ago
I say we created a plan B for getting off this big Rock should the worst ever happen.
Create a group of the worlds smartest scientists to create an earth protection organization that works to find technological solutions to things that threaten the survival of this plan.
meteors,solar flares,Super volcanoes,gamma ray bursts,black holes,etc stuff like that.
DeaddudeRS 3 weeks ago
The problem with conservatives is that they assume that just because most liberals are anti-capitalist, and they are against liberals, they are the best defenders of capitalism and the free market. Unfortunately, that's not a well grounded assertion. Even Bill cannot get away from the idea that there should still be some government agency, some "lean, mean, stripped down NASA," in charge of technology development and the official guidance of research. Economic superstitions die hard.
deepfriedsammich 1 month ago
Private Enterprise all the way!!
cory2146 1 month ago
i like this guy
he speakes the truth and doesnt afraid of anything
MrMinyNuke 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
The only way the ending could have been better is if he quickly put on sunglasses and yelled YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
fastonfeat 2 months ago
I can't helping watching this video now and then. I really like it. It's truly inspirational.
Kulumuli 5 months ago
Strangely enough one of NASA's reasons for ending their space programme was because increasingly the private sector are doing what NASA used to do with sending up satellites and such.
Simply put Obama isn't the one you can blame this on, he simply realised that a state-run space agency is becoming less cost effective in a field which private companies are beginning to fill. Any sensible president would have weighed the cost of running the shuttle-replacement against its usefulness.
capcommissargaunt 6 months ago
Thanks for the lols.
nilbud 6 months ago
Djsnuva1 - that response is so idiotic and shortsighted that it's hardly worth considering an answer.
Covermeporkins11 7 months ago
one of the most inspiring things i have ever seen
TheMoron64 7 months ago
If these private industry aerospace companies are so good,why haven't they been able to achieve what NASA did? Land people on the moon, then I'll believe that the private companies are as good as NASA.
DJSNuva1 7 months ago
Emotionally moving, absolutely beautiful-- Bill, you've made a grown man literally come to tears with hope, joy, and inspiration. I realized this very thing independently before viewing, but hearing you put into words, well, .. I sincerely appreciate. Thank you.
nuclearjong 7 months ago
Mr Whittle, when you said "our space station" it brought a smile to my face- it's the INTERNATIONAL space station, good sir, at least that's the one you showed an image of. The only country to ever have its own space station was the Soviet Union / Russia, with the Mir project. Also, I love the quiet, discreet way in which you said "hitch a ride." I think it could really use some emphasis, since most of you Americans won't know it's OUR rockets that bring your astronauts home.
30DOTCOM 7 months ago
@30DOTCOM Are you forgetting Skylab?
SpareSimian 5 months ago
You're the Carl Sagan of politics, bro
Rownery 7 months ago
Which clause of the Constitution allows NASA, again? It has nothing to do with our fiscal position, nor interstate or international commerce, nor citizenship, nor currency, nor making fake money, nor post communication or transportation, nor protecting the ownership of ideas and inventions for a period of time, nor court, nor piracy, nor the military with the exception of missile designs, nor Washington, DC, nor slavery, nor civil rights. What allows NASA constitutionally?
audioblogs12 8 months ago
@audioblogs12 What NASA should be is a regulatory agency for commercial space exploration/exploitation.
Halo4Lyf 7 months ago
@Halo4Lyf If it were that it still should not exist. Businesses, especially doing something as dangerous as space exploration where one small error can be fatal, will lose money if they screw up. They don't need a government agency to burden them even more.
audioblogs12 7 months ago
@audioblogs12 No, but you do need someone expecting cargo so that Iranian "communications company" that contracts some space on a heavy-lift vehicle doesn't ship a nuke into LEO over the US.
Halo4Lyf 7 months ago
This is Fantastic News. I was torn over losing NASA although I always knew it was Unconstitutional but still accepted it over other Illegal Govt. agencies because I thought it was the only Agency capable of advancements that only Space Flight can bring. Bless You you have shown me I was incorrect and should have trusted the American Spirit and Exceptionalism to prevail beyond that of NASA. Loved the Rocket powered Cozy too, the Home Built Aircraft for folks with a adventurous nature, like me.
Synapticsnap 9 months ago
This has to be one of the most hopeful and inspirational films on private enterprise since we got rid of Ma Bell.
myfreedomfirst 9 months ago
A raving ideologue calling the Apollo program un-american? Give me a break. The dogma that gives the US the worst health coverage in the western world, being applied to space travel? Someone is going to die for your hubris. Mark my words.
lettucemonster 9 months ago
@lettucemonster We'll mourn the dead and drive onward.
Halo4Lyf 9 months ago
@lettucemonster American health care is half-socialist as the government pays for 50% of health care costs. People weren't walking over corpses in the streets before the US government intervened in health care. Thousands die each year in countries with 'free' health care. Google "What's Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry by Vijay Boyapati" and get educated.
truevoice08 8 months ago
@truevoice08 So not having read whatever conspiracy theory drivel you are promoting makes me 'uneducated'? Wake up and join the rest of western civilisation.
lettucemonster 8 months ago
@lettucemonster If you haven't read it then how can you say it's conspiracy theory. Congratulations, you have shown yourself to be a retard. :))
truevoice08 8 months ago
@truevoice08 No. Being unwilling to waste my time on your fringe lunacy does not make me a 'retard'. One day, when you have perhaps grown out of this fringe lunacy, you will learn to accept that people can disagree with you without being stupid.
lettucemonster 8 months ago
@lettucemonster Well, now I can conclude that you are a retard or at least uneducated since all you can do is resort to smears like 'conspiracy theorist' or 'fringe'. Face it, you ain't got no facts, no logic, and that makes you angry. :))
truevoice08 8 months ago
@truevoice08 Its not a smear - your sources are NOT credible. Face it - NASA went to the Moon on public money, nothing comparable has been done with private money. That is a fact, you know the thing you (incorrectly) claim I do not have on my side. What you need to do, in order to grow up and become a rational person, is to start being more skeptical of fringe ideologies.
lettucemonster 8 months ago
@lettucemonster "Face it - NASA went to the Moon on public money" Anybody can get to the moon when you get funding from government. It's like if you give me a million dollars I'll bake you a really good cake. Government has no cost-benefit analysis unlike the private sector. Everything the government has it took from private sector production. It seems you don't know a thing about the 'fringe' ideology you are criticizing.
truevoice08 8 months ago
PRIVATE INDUSTRY > GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.
asphyxiafeeling 9 months ago
You are GOP.. But you are right on Private Space programme !!
davisgreen2020 10 months ago
W A R P D R I V E!!!!!
quietjedi1010101 10 months ago
AMURICHA FUCK YEAH!!!!!!
I HATE DEM COMMIE BASTERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EVERY1 NOS MR>OBUMANNA WAS BRON IN KENYA CUS HES BLACK AND EVRY1 WHOS BLACK IS FROM KENYA!!!!!!!!!!!!
mrvendetor 10 months ago
We're going to space and government is not invited.
tcampain 10 months ago 4
@tcampain
That needs to be a transhumanist motto. : )
PanzerDivisionBOM 1 month ago
Private enterprise works because if it fails it meets its own demise. If government fails, then its just takes more of the tax payer's money. Government doesn't care about efficiency or waste because it doesn't have fiscal constraints.
1czelaya 10 months ago 16
@1czelaya but the problem is that private enterprise can't profit off space,
SirTorment 1 month ago
@SirTorment There is money to made in the space industry. It's a great untouched potential for market expansion. For instance, already, communication companies utilize satellites for services. More and more technology is relying on wireless communication (The Cloud, GPS, internet,...). Satellite technology is vital and rapidly becoming more important in the communications industry. What about travel? While in it's infancy travel in space is ideal in many respects.
1czelaya 1 month ago
@1czelaya Sort of see where you be coming from but..you sorta sum'rised it when you be saying that it's in "its infancy". Sure, if a space company met aliens, yeah, they'd make the shiny stuff. But like, it's all very much a huge risk. Very high price. No forseeable profit. Comms industry is good, but like, that's not really the kind of space EXPLORATION i'm talking about, the kind which does need govt funding if you be wan'ing to see a man be on the moon.
SirTorment 1 month ago
@SirTorment In the video above, space travel is the main initiative. Why? As of right now, it's too expensive with current propulsion system. Markets are dynamical & always evolving. Traveling to other continents in space has two huge benefits. Once in space, drag & the need for fuel are almost diminished entirely. Thus it's a logical step forward for travel. The potential for advancement for this type of travel has enormous implications for markets if the price is brought down.
1czelaya 1 month ago
@1czelaya I see where you're coming from. How would you propose the government foster this private innovation and investment, since more clearly needs to be happening than at present.
SirTorment 4 weeks ago
@SirTorment That's a tougher question but there's one factor that should be heavily considered-government intervention in the form of subsidies. I'm stating this because, for the most part, any time a new novel technology is brought into fruition, if subsidized, cost sky rocket. One really good example is nuclear energy. It was supposed to be the nascent panacea of energy. It's become incredibly costly and time consuming.
1czelaya 3 weeks ago
@SirTorment Until the cost of space travel is lower than the current cost of travel-this particular market wont hit critical mass. However it's slowly getting there. This type of technology is so intertwined with so many other industries that they key may not be with propulsion but with strong, light, novel materials (alloys, nanotechnology, ceramics,...). Markets are unpredictable but when things finally emerge, markets grow ferociously because consumers take interest.
1czelaya 3 weeks ago
@SirTorment There is one aspect of technology that is incredible if it's driven by markets and not subsidized. Prices always come down because someone wants to make a good or service cheaper by a margin. This process is incremental but over a short period brings prices down. This is why LED televisions cost $4K-$5K when they first came out and now can be purchased for way under a $1K at Walmart and they're more reliable. Markets do this without government intervention.
1czelaya 1 month ago
@SirTorment Look at the aviation industry. Within a short period of time look at how private enterprise evolved ferociously. Once entrepreneur create the methods for intercontinental space travel, it's only a matter of time before the technology becomes cheaper, better, and more efficient to make the next logical step to interplanetary travel. You mention profit in space-the potential does exist for mining, energy havesting, and colonization of planets.
1czelaya 1 month ago
@SirTorment Most importantly, markets do it more efficiently, faster, & more cost effective. Why? Because cost is paramount. Governments, for the most part, don't care about cost. Profits are an incredible systems of checks & balances because it FORCES you to do the most with the least amount & creates innovation. This is why the USPS is collapsing and UPS is thriving. It's profit that has made UPS & FEDEX cheaper, more innovative, provide better services, and constantly evolve.
1czelaya 1 month ago
@1czelaya Yeah, some fair arguments there, some, I still doubt that businesses will be prepared to just make huge leaps to find new planets etc. I think the best thing for space is for the government to make a space station in outerspace, thereby making it easy to travel from point to point. I didn't really like your argument on subsidies though -- I mean, that seems a bit ironic to be in favour of free markets and subsidies...not to mention costly.
SirTorment 3 weeks ago
I've probably watched this video two dozen times by now, and it's still my pick-me-up. I absolutely tingle with anticipation at what the next 10 years in space will yield... provided we can keep the same people that killed the Constellation project from killing everything else.
californiumblog 11 months ago 5
This comment has received too many negative votes show
LOL what the shit, I dont want to see that private sector puts Britney Spears on the moon.
Dont be idiot, these companies target to get rich into space and get them pay for it. There is nothing bold about it.
What a brainwash video! And those private sector companies based on NASA technology. And we dont need manned space exploration. We need unmanned probes for scientific progress!
hookah604 11 months ago
@hookah604
Everything you said was so incredibly devoud of facts and has absolutely nothing to do with this video.
"And we dont need manned space exploration. We need unmanned probes for scientific progress"
Spoken like a true government bot. Well, while the government is building unmanned probs with billions of tax dollars. private industry will be putting men on the moon/mars with their OWN money -and do it cheaper.
Please read the 5000 year leap. IT will change your life.
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago 10
This has been flagged as spam show
@Eterna1Soldier but the problem is that private enterprise can't profit off space,
SirTorment 1 month ago
@Eterna1Soldier Here's a better book: "The Case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin.
GoblinKnightLeo 2 weeks ago in playlist More videos from BillWhittleChannel
I just have a couple of questions:
a) what are the financial incentives to pursue "mundane" yet important topics such as water on mars and the moons of saturn?
b) Isn't the reason why the private sector space ventures are so much cheaper because they built upon the complex research originally carried out by NASA?
16thHop 11 months ago
@16thHop
"what are the financial incentives to pursue "mundane" yet important topics such as water on mars and the moons of saturn"
Profit, prestige, and human curiosity. Basically the exact opposite of government.
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago
@16thHop
"Isn't the reason why the private sector space ventures are so much cheaper because they built upon the complex research originally carried out by NASA?"
You got it backwards. Did NASA create the rocket? The computer? The electronics, transistors, various metals, and a million other technologies it took to lift a rocket to space? No. In fact, NASA uses private contractors for many - if not the majority - of it's technology. And most of it's employees are from private companies.
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago 4
@Eterna1Soldier
1) First rockets were invented in China and came to their modern form by the works of amateur Goddard and the Nazi government.
2) The first modern computer, Atanasoff–Berry Computer, was developed by a public university, Iowa State, with Army grants.
3) The first transistor computer was created in the public University of Manchester.
The point is, we've achieved alot by employing this delicate balance of government funding and private initiative that we currently have now.
16thHop 10 months ago
The Government does nothing right? How about ARPANET, which paved the way for the internet? I believe in the profit motive but lets not take it too far. I hate when the government privatizes things only the government should do. My biggest pet peeve is prisons. Look up "judge Mark Ciavarella".
joshuancts 11 months ago
@joshuancts So.... only the government should go into space? Why?
heislukos 11 months ago
@joshuancts ARPANET was only 4000 servers when the government unplugged it and stopped funding it. Since then the last possible number 156 million websites are available and 1/3 of the planet is online. Neither of these things would be possible if Uncle Sam was there. Plus, I'll consider the work of the Internet by the government, if you'll consider it's growth without its intervention.
itsspideyman 11 months ago 3
@joshuancts
"The Government does nothing right?"
He didn't say that. An OVERBEARING gov only causes more problems and hindered innovation.
As for your ridiculous assertion of the net. Why do you think the net as we know it exists? Private individuals can implement their ideas and make profit. Do you think their would ever be a youtube under ARPANET? The internet became what it is thanks to private individuals. If the gov still controlled the net, it would still be ARPANET.
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago 5
@joshuancts
And do you know why? Because unlike private individuals, the gov has no incentive to innovate and grow the net. In fact, what if the gov hadn't stopped funding it and prevented citizens from using it? (It was funded for military use after all). Think about it. Everything the internet is wouldn't exist. And it would still be the same efficient junk it was under ARPANET. Every single innovation and advancement was made by private indivisuals.
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago 4
@joshuancts
And to expand further, why do you think everyone in developed nations have computers? Would that be so without the internet? And compare a new PC with a PC that's only 5 years old. Why do you think computing tech is advancing so quickly? And consider everything that wouldn't exist w/o the net. How many companies (and millions of jobs) are based of the net?
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago 4
@joshuancts
The internet is the poster child for free market capitalism. When government's reach into the market is limited, innovation occurs. It's no coincidence that humanity has advanced more in the last 200 years than in the previous 5000. That's when the free market was first truly instituted in the US. And it's no coincidence that the US is the leading nation in technological advancement.
Sorry for the string of posts. Youtube's comment section sucks. Hopefully they'll innovate it
Eterna1Soldier 11 months ago 3
9 people are obviously communists...
UpwardBound5656 11 months ago
I think the private sector is more capable of producing better products and service if there is a profit motivator. If there is no profit than investors have no motivation to push the envelope of innovation. Personal profit is the motivator behind growth in every-way. If we can monitize space exploration, someone will leverage it.
Jakedd5 11 months ago
Cool, John Carmack get's all the best jobs! I wouldn't touch anything that slime ball Branson is doing!
TheTempestSpark 1 year ago
Found it. It was Hugo Junkers who patented a wing-only air transport concept in 1910.
higuma75 1 year ago
Remember that was the same with aviation. It wasn't the government that brought the innovation, it was pioneers. Hughes, Junkers (who built the first full-metal aircraft), Dornier. The first flying wing was designed pre-WW1 by a German engineer (not sure if it was Junkers of Dornier right now.)
higuma75 1 year ago
These guys are freakin' PIONEERS and should be applauded!
devildogmre 1 year ago
Great story Bill. Thank you so much. I never made the connection between NASA's failure and the big government effect on all things financial before. I'm greatly encouraged.
TheAmericanRifleman 1 year ago
As someone who had been deeply involved in the space industry in college, thank you so much for this video. I'm very excited to see where this new space industry leads.
Eliada 1 year ago
Comment removed
ChiefGalenTyrol 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Burt Rutan's airplanes made me want to be an engineer and his wicked sweet mutton chops make me not want to shave.
ChiefGalenTyrol 1 year ago
Burt Rutan's airplanes made me want to be an engineer and his wicked sweet mutton chops make me not want to shave.
ChiefGalenTyrol 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
conservative fucktards wanking each other off on youtube
likemy 1 year ago
@likemy Better then libtards sodomizing each other & doing nothing but insulting people who aren't gov't automotons.
GlennRoxWyo 1 year ago 5
4:55 OH GOD WHAT IS THAT!?
eightsixzero 1 year ago
I wish you were right in saying that these private sector programs cannot be stopped Bill...but you know as well as I that all it would take would be some unelected, unaccountable idiot in the EPA to declare that what is going on is harming the planet, or endangering a 2 inch segmented worm in the Mohave to have them come in and shut it down...until those funding it were persuaded to contribut to someone with pull who could call the EPA dogs off. *sigh* I turned 9 3 days after the moon landing
bubblemum 1 year ago
@bubblemum lol paranoia. all the commercial vehicles except one (SS2 hybrid rocket) use regular, common transportation fuels.
what was the last effect EPA had on space? making NASA spray foam differently? big deal. paranoia.
moneyman10k 1 year ago
You hit another one out of the park! Truth to the core. Good job, Bill. Now, I GOTTA find a way to get a ticket on Virgin Galactic!
Berkut13 1 year ago
@deadlyh 160 years ago Frédéric Bastiat explained that a technological improvement at a coal mine will reduce costs. The miner won't pass the savings on at first, giving him more profit as a just reward. At some point the secret will out, the patent will expire, or a competitor will develop alternate technology. Then COMPETITION ensures that the buyer has other options. The first miner has to lower his price, benefitting society. Eventually it's competition which makes the research available.
retmiles 1 year ago
Comment removed
deadlyh 1 year ago
Comment removed
deadlyh 1 year ago
@TheLordLondo What exactly is wrong with MONEY MONEY MONEY, especially when it is being put into a cause like opening the high frontier of space? I would rather have MONEY MONEY MONEY-grubbing entrepreneurs and a chance for my kids, and maybe even myself to venture beyond the Earth, than your "Starfleet Principles" and nothing more elevating than reruns of a 1960's space opera.
PapaNoMidokoro 1 year ago 16
Awesome video, Bill, not to mention an awesome nation and an awesome future. So much recent science fiction takes a pessimistic view of the possibility of the human exploration and colonization of outer space, but you are outlining a brighter-than-Heinlein future that is not on the drawing boards, but on the test stand now, and soon ...
o/~ ... gotta wear shades! o/~
Thanks for posting, Bill. I've been a long-time fan of your work on PJTV.
PapaNoMidokoro 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
RIDICULOUS. The private sector would just want MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. They would not know "Starfleet principals", period. You sound like a propogandist for Wall Street.
TheLordLondo 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
RIDICULOUS. The private sector would just want MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. They would not know "Starfleet principals", period. You sound like a propogandist for Wall Street.
TheLordLondo 1 year ago
@TheLordLondo results speak for themselves dude. On time, cheaper, and progress vs. nothing. Hmmmm... I'm with on time, cheaper, and progress.
r351574nc3 1 year ago
@TheLordLondo This one takes the cake so far! You will be pleased to know that Your Federal Government, which took $10,000,000,000 of your money at gunpoint, and produced a single suborbital flight of a surplus shuttle SRB (which collided with the payload and suffered a parachute failure) is not interested in MONEY MONEY MONEY like the private guys who did 3x more a 1/30th the cost! The government is run on "STARFLEET PRINCIPALS!" Principles, perhaps? Starfleet Principals kept Kirk in demerits.
BillWhittleChannel 1 year ago 44
@BillWhittleChannel On top of that, NASA is horrendously bad at project management. The Space Shuttles, when they were proposed, were supposed to make 40-50 flights a year. They barely made 5 flights a year, not including the voids of flights following the Challenger and Columbia disasters. NASA often makes decisions not based on sound engineering principles, but on politics. The launch of Challenger on that fateful day was purely based on politics. Why? Because....
MikeTMerciless 1 year ago 2
@BillWhittleChannel contined...because NASA rarely suffers for its mistakes. Individuals may feel terrible about the deaths they caused due to their reckless decisions, but private businesses who suffer the consequences of their decisions are far more prudent than those who are insulated from the results of their decisions. That's why government needs to get out of anything we deem of value and importance. Even, to some degree, defense.
MikeTMerciless 1 year ago 2
@BillWhittleChannel:
He probably knows all that. It's just in his mind government can do no wrong, so by definition, every penny it takes and spends is well spent.
Akatam0t0ma 10 months ago
@BillWhittleChannel I would think that if a private company discovered an alien civilization, it would be doing its absolute best to promote peace... and trade. After all, it's their ships governments would be buying. They would be promoting peace and trade throughout the galaxy, and making an obscene amount of money doing it. I'm just trying to contemplate how much taxes that would deliver to governments. It could probably pay for health care for everyone in the world, and then some.
mlwwlm 6 months ago
@TheLordLondo
I pity you
Eterna1Soldier 1 year ago
@TheLordLondo:
" The private sector would just want MONEY, MONEY, MONEY"
Yeah, unlike governments, who are filled with Platonic philosopher bureaucrats with hearts the size of Saturn and brains the size of Jupiter who are just looking for your best interests, and will never take a penny that doesn't belong to them! Oh wait, what was that? Oh, I see. Another brain-dead economically illiterate cookie-cutter statetard. Nothing to see here. Move along, folks.
Akatam0t0ma 10 months ago 3
King Obama and Washington are part of the problem. I believe our own Government
has plans to take us down a new road, it's called a NEW WORLD ORDER.....
rpick1954 1 year ago
Our wonderful King Obama killed the Constellation Program, look's like all
the Aerospace workers will have to join the brothers in the grocery store
with their Government paid for EBT food stamp cards........
rpick1954 1 year ago
Im all for ANYONE who wants to get into space in this country but my money is on SpaceX.
valcan321 1 year ago
Stunning video! Private enterprise vs government bureaucracy... Go figure! Think about what could be done if everything was done w/out the govt involved, like the Founding Fathers had intended!
TheRealjohnny2k 1 year ago
There is no doubt that the private sector can do it cheaper if for no other reason than Musk or Bigelow can make a decision and boom, that's it. Move on. Also they have a profit motive which, well, need I elaborate. i have great hopes. ' Destination Moon' lives!
maxsmodels 1 year ago
Lack of funding and excessive regulation can stop it
Craigthepope 1 year ago
Of course NASA has used private contractors since Apollo, but as Bill said on a cost plus basis with top-down decision making. This virtually guarantees high costs and not-invented- here management.
docmordrid 1 year ago
Bill, I would challenge the claim that Apollo was a "government program". Although we paid for it, the ingenuity and creativity came from private businesses (Hughes, Grumman, McDonnell, Rocketdyne, Douglas, etc) who competed for the contracts.
joedoufu 1 year ago
Fantastic Video.
One quibble - we might be better off if people wrote their congressmen and begged them to look the other way. Clearly these efforts are better off without them.
smacklin1223 1 year ago 7
This video gives me hope.
vegettosonlab 1 year ago
the problem is not government, it is people who drink their own kool-aid
Ronsmytheiii 1 year ago
SpaceX kicks it back into space!
caddude1 1 year ago
This video made me want to say YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! GO USA! Thanks Mr. Whittle! I am excited again.
theothertoolbox 1 year ago
I wish I could give 1000 thumbs up.
0600Zulu 1 year ago
Bill, Look up the Freedom rocket. It is made by the contractor that was doing all of the work for NASA on the Ares rocket. They are now selling it to the ESA.
jfekendall 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@jfekendall
The Freedon is a bad joke.
First, it doesn't exist - only PowerPoint at this point.
Second, its only capable of launching 20 metric tons, a capability we already have - or is exceeded by using Atlas V or Delta IV Heavy.
Third, if you want to build something it should be Falcon 9 Heavy - 32 metric tons with all kerosene or much more with the Raptor 2nd stage - both of which SpaceX has in active development.
Then there is their Falcon X - 70+ metric tons.
docmordrid 1 year ago
@jfekendall
The Freedon is a bad joke.
First, it doesn't exist - only PowerPoint at this point.
Second, its only capable of launching 20 metric tons, a capability we already have - or is exceeded by using Atlas V or Delta IV Heavy.
Third, if you want to build something it should be Falcon 9 Heavy - 32 metric tons with all kerosene or much more with the Raptor 2nd stage - both of which SpaceX has in active development.
Then there is their Falcon X - 70+ metric tons.
docmordrid 1 year ago
@docmordrid For some context--70 metric tons is roughly equivalent to a fully loaded semi truck and max-length trailer. You can do a lot with a 70 ton capacity.
MCADJim 1 year ago
Bill your passion is infectious. I grew up wanting to go to Mars. Maybe I'll get the chance before I die after all. Go!
red5llaw 1 year ago
Comment removed
docmordrid 1 year ago
God bless you, Bill! You are an inspiration and an amazing guy! Keep up the good work!
ChallengeDK 1 year ago
Very well made video! It puts the whole picture in perspective within about 10 mins.
SpeedRunner 1 year ago
Go SpaceX!
EndeavourLaunch 1 year ago
When the government meddles in things like this, it only causes stagnation.
Thumbs up for free enterprise!
ErikMartin81 1 year ago
I haven't been so excited about the "American Space Program" in years! Thanks Bill!
God Bless the American Spirit! God Bless America! God Bless Bill Whittle!
ToxinMortalis 1 year ago
Outstanding. It brought tears to my eyes. This is why those of us in the New Space industry are busting our collective butts out here in the high desert. Just outstanding
GrouchoN328KF 1 year ago 2
The problem isn't that NASA is a government programme - it's that it's subject to constant government *intervention*. If you keep changing the goalposts halfway through the game, you'll f*ck it up no matter what your intentions may be. Give NASA a clear goal, keep Congress from interfering.
WiredDragoon 1 year ago 4
Thumbs up if Kevin Sorbo (MOTHERF***ING HERCULES) sent you here!!
mfashnick 1 year ago
this makes me think of Firefly. maybe someday.
boredprincess08 1 year ago
This is one of the more inspiring videos I've seen online in a while. The economy, the burden that the government puts on our lives, and the future feels so bleak. But people choosing to succeed despite the government. It's great.
nationalpride 1 year ago 4
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Its All SMOKE and FOG. Private companies have been making wild promises for years and they have nothing to show for it. Space X is building their Rockets with NASA money so they can send RICH people on orbital joy Rides. NONE of these start ups will get us back to the Moon.
If Science is the motivation for these FOR PROFIT companies where are their Mars Rovers and missions to Saturn? NASA has done very well in that business.
The Shuttle and ISS were a REPUBLICAN Idea. And it failed.
Kapitananime 1 year ago
China will be funding its own space program but their program depends on western innovation to get it done.
By defunding NASA we will release a lot of engineering knowledge, talent and creativity which is currently locked away in a very expensive welfare program.
13times 1 year ago
youtube.com/watch?v=8WVQkzQCaCw
0netwo345 1 year ago
Anyone who dislikes this really needs to get their priorities, and what they think our species' priorities should be, in order.
Felipe058 1 year ago
@ 6m38s, we see a rocket (apparently a Falcon 9) with red digits on the right side of the frame. That's a film camera that's part of government equipment at the range, used for NASA & Air Force launches, but are you sure that's a Falcon 9? I haven't seen this view before. Do you have a source for that footage?
sharrynuk 1 year ago
Did anybody tell Bill that the move to commercialize NASA and its launch vehicles came from President Obama's Administration? The people who are against commercializing NASA are GOP Congressmen who are only interested in tech jobs in their districts, not America's preeminence in space.
GRSG 1 year ago
yeah i love zachary... and my best wishes for him...
paobuen 1 year ago
mmm... space bacon sounds good... but what about space duck?
thumb up if you get the reference XD
dircrap 1 year ago
I was at the first civilian manned space flight at Mojave Space Port a few years back, and it was clear then, private sector space flight was the cost effective future. I worked with Burt Rutan on a couple of aerospace programs, and his genius paved the way; but the real missed point here is America Investing In America and its entrepreneurs, innovators, creators. So the disservice here is this vid irresponsibly mistakes cost-reimbursement or Fixed Price contract types as a "cause." They're not.
erikcata 1 year ago
NASA does a huge amount of work that isn't just about exploring space, or manned space flights. As excellent as this vid is, and the many salient observations it makes, for those in the know, the problem isn't the large aerospace companies, it is the parochial bureaucratic ineffectual culture of NASA and the requirements they drive down, and how the manage; the Boeing's and Lockheeds desire to always perform under budget and on schedule, NASA gets in the way.
erikcata 1 year ago
thanks to zachary levi for posting this but even more thanks to bill whittle for perfectly summarizing what needs to be said. my only hope is that this video is the start of some change that will get us to that final frontier.
poundzy22 1 year ago
Press pause. Then play and press "8" on your keyboard repetitively for a man going into seizures.
Donkarnage2525 1 year ago
So Heinlein got it right after all, even if he didn't know it. But won't we have the same problem? Aren't there treaties that limit what we can do out there?
zvi303 1 year ago 2
MMMMMMMMMM, Space Bacon.
kenwheaton1 1 year ago 2
thumbs up if zachary levi sent you here!
obamarosa 1 year ago 18
aaaawwwwwweeeeesssssooommmmmeeeee I CAN NOT WAIT to go up in one of those things! It's officially on the bucket list.
Soulja4Alethia 1 year ago
THUMBS UP if ZACHARY LEVI sent u HERE!!!! =D
tvkidd1230 1 year ago 233
@tvkidd1230 I hate thumb-up beggers, but I was sent here by Zach. So, I will thumb up this one time.
kunaluh 1 year ago 3
@kunaluh LOL, not a begger.... just think if Zach sent you here... it deserves a thumbs UP^^^ :P cuz hes just that AWESOME
tvkidd1230 1 year ago
@tvkidd1230 He didn't, but how wonderful that he sent so many people here. Every week I like him more.
joanieponytail57 1 year ago
@joanieponytail57 me2 the feeling is eXtra mutual... LOVE that guy... hes freakin amazing :D
tvkidd1230 1 year ago
from lunar activity. (Someone really needs to move the "go" button away from the backspace button.)
capitalistdingo 1 year ago
4:40 "just like a cat!" LOL I would love to have a cat that could do all that. Great video though. I can't wait until the first company makes profit fro
capitalistdingo 1 year ago
4:40 "just like a cat!"
capitalistdingo 1 year ago
I HATE NASA...DEATH TO NASA!
azjeff1971 1 year ago
@azjeff1971 The People of NASA are some of the best. It's the actual organization that's become an unwieldy behemoth and bureaucracy. It's just the nature of government organizations.
neosuki 1 year ago
This is amazing! The greatest summary of where we are today. Thanks Bill.
WilliamDurocher 1 year ago
This is amazing! The greatest summary of where we are today. Thanks Bill.
WilliamDurocher 1 year ago
Private Space Age programs declared a threat to National Security and private property being confiscated by our government in 5, 4, 3...
MCx10 1 year ago
if I recall correctly, bill whittle used to be on the wrong team supporting constellation. thank sweet baby jesus he has come around. because this is just the kind of production that we've needed... for years. before obama's FY11 got carved up into pork constellation 2.0: stealth edition. lets just hope it is not too late for people like bill to come around to what is really going on.
he called a spade a spade. nasa is a jobs program. say it together with me now. nasa is a jobs program.
moneyman10k 1 year ago
*clap clap clap* Bravo!
belowme2 1 year ago
Low earth orbit. Too bad my father isn't still alive, he was a combustion instability expert from Cal Tech, got his masters in about 1953, ranked #1 or 2 in the field. Alas the local college (Sierra JC Rocklin CA) didn't think he was qualified to teach engineering! I can't even list all the designs he did, ah well not as bad as sending him into the infantry dring WWII AFTER he was accepted into Cal Tech, welcome to the USA!
lesodgers 1 year ago
Low earth orbit.
lesodgers 1 year ago
Government's job is to open the frontier by doing the riskiest, iconic yet nonprofitable tasks like the first trip to the moon or to mars. As soon as companies can invent business plans and attract investors let them have at it! Government and old defense industry run with the leaders or get out of the way. Understand your market and serve it well: there's PLENTY of this to go around!
SpacetourNy 1 year ago
Awesome!
wildoates56 1 year ago
We have computers like my lap top today because a guy in a garage though he could build one and people would buy it, Your cell phone has way more computer power than the computers they used to fly to the moon. The hanger rats are going to be the ones that are going to come up with the Technology to go to Mars and beyond, and guess what at some point they will make a pile of money doing it. Just like Steve Jobs did in his garage. It was not all that long ago .
BH206L3 1 year ago
Thank you Bill!
I watched this with tears in my 63 year old eyes, and remembered lost dreams from my past, seeing them renewed and bloom from seemingly dead roots, with total amazement at what is happening in the private sector that I was totally unaware of.
Kentucky Senators Mitch M