Comments by "Digital Nomad" (@digitalnomad9985) on "Buran-Energia : The Soviet Space Shuttle 2.0 on a Moon Rocket" video.
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@christopherbertoli7322 "SpaceX is being run like every other private company: poorly, "
You are either utterly ignorant of the inherent characteristics of private companies compared to government agencies, or you are blowing smoke for partizan political purposes. There is NO effective pressure on government agencies to be efficient, they are in effect rewarded for spending money. Private companies must be efficient or die. The universal results of each mode of operation match this difference. If you don't know this, you don't know anything. If you are looking for an exception to this, look to the "corporate welfare" beneficiaries like the most powerful defense contractors and ULA, which get "cost plus" contracts. Unlike ULA, SpaceX got a relative pittance of R & D money, but his government contracts don't pay up until he delivers. ULA gets paid continuously for stretching out programs, and the gravy train ENDS when they deliver. That's why the Shuttle took so long to develop and there has been no manned replacement, indeed no new vehicle since the 1980s from ULA, despite multiple major contracts. ULA is being payed megabucks to dither, SpaceX is being paid to get the job done, no "cost plus" nonsense. When private companies bid on NASA contracts with no "cost plus" provisions, we will begin to see some cost effectiveness on the vehicle production side. But NASA is still a government agency and will always waste a goodly portion of their budget on red tape and administrative nonsense. Diligence in managing government agencies is vitally important and long overdue, but will always be an incomplete uphill battle. Cutting costs in a government agency is like herding cats (contrary to the nature of cats), but still needs to be continuously attempted.
As for comparing the Challenger accident with the Dragon crash, you're trying to compare an operational failure with multiple fatalities FAVORABLY to a failure in an unmanned test flight. This makes no sense. Any failure is suboptimal, but compared with operational failures, a test failure is pretty much what tests are for. Far better to have your failures in the test program so you can fix them before you are carrying a valuable payload.
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