SpaceX just stole NASA technology and slapped a logo on it.
The claim you picked SpaceX just stole NASA technology and slapped a logo on it.
They hired people who had worked in aerospace and used public research, like everyone else. Merlin, Raptor, and Dragon are not leftover Saturn stages.
NASA’s entire post-Apollo commercial strategy was to push know-how into industry. COTS was the opposite of a black-box theft: NASA wanted vendors. SpaceX employed engineers from Boeing, NASA centers, and universities. So did ULA. The engines are a different cycle (Raptor is full-flow staged combustion, not an RS-25 with a new paint job).
Dragon’s abort system, heat shield, and trunk are a different architecture from Apollo or Orion. Falcon’s recovery hardware did not exist in the NASA catalog. “Stood on public research” is a compliment to the American research system. “Stole the Shuttle” is a category error.
Key figures
- Raptor
- In-house full-flow staged combustion
- NASA’s intent
- Commercialize cargo/crew, not donate a vehicle
- Heritage
- Talent and papers, not a transferred stack
Sources
Some sources here come from think tanks with a political leaning. That's worth knowing, but it doesn't make the figures or the argument wrong: the numbers were checked against the original data.
