Is the "Moving fast and breaking things" attitude commonly associated with these types of companies compatible with ATC?
While I acknowledge their success in space, a LOT of guardrails/regulation were placed upon them to assure safe progress. Now they're both running the regulatory agency while also providing the end-product, which may mean faster progress but less safety overall.
Air travel is, generally, safe. The US has an issue with low staffing levels in ATC, and while automated systems have helped, the workload is still too high. It will likely be years before a Starlink product would come online, so staffing levels need to be addressed in the near-term.
Not to mention the early model was built on govt contracts because the govt was the only institution capable of shouldering the risk of an unproven space vendor.
Not saying that’s a bad thing, just that the success of SpaceX and the govt were tightly coupled.
Interestingly, it looks like the “BEAD program” - a rural broadband initiative was allocated more funding ($42b) than SpaceX and Tesla combined ($37b).
That last number includes loans, too.
I chose that example in particular because Starlink has done more for rural broadband access than everything else the federal government has done combined.
I agree Starlink is poised to be very successful at providing high speed internet to rural areas. But that doesn’t negate the point that it required the govt to do so because SpaceX would not exist if it didn’t get high risk govt contracts. Also, I wouldn’t compare it to terrestrial internet unless you advocate it being a regulated utility in the same way, which I doubt Musk or investors would want. Different rules, different constraints.
Elon is exactly the person to want to rewrite things from scratch and break shit. Hopefully, a drop in air travel due to safety fears leads to the workload decreasing, thereby allowing these forced system upgrades to happen with less harm.
While I acknowledge their success in space, a LOT of guardrails/regulation were placed upon them to assure safe progress. Now they're both running the regulatory agency while also providing the end-product, which may mean faster progress but less safety overall.
Air travel is, generally, safe. The US has an issue with low staffing levels in ATC, and while automated systems have helped, the workload is still too high. It will likely be years before a Starlink product would come online, so staffing levels need to be addressed in the near-term.