NASA could of also taken on those contracts and launched more rockets than they are currently are doing.
Elon isn't launching them on is lonesome as some great misunderstood innovator. He's the public face to a lot of investment, which could easily go elsewhere and be more or less successful, who knows.
Feel free to have whatever opinion you want of Elon Musk, but SpaceX has been wildly successful by just about every metric. In terms of cost, they are launching payloads at 1/44th the cost per kg of the Space Shuttle and at a fraction of the cost of their private sector competitors. Also, there's the fact that we were bumming rides off the Russians for a decade because of NASA's issues...
Agreed, SpaceX is successful. Disagree that this excludes an alternative where public funds were spent elsewhere with similar success. More or less success, who knows.
Feel free to maintain your bias, but it's a fact that smart engineers can achieve success under more than just one single showman.
NASA could of also taken on those contracts and launched more rockets than they are currently are doing.
Elon isn't launching them on is lonesome as some great misunderstood innovator. He's the public face to a lot of investment, which could easily go elsewhere and be more or less successful, who knows.