I imagine designing and building space craft and paying top scientists a wage costs A LOT of money.
So do government programs make money or does it just use up tax dollars without much return?
Also how does a company like SpaceX, for example, make their money?
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It depend what you are talking about.
If it’s for simply exploration of space, then it’s usually governmental programs that will pay for it through taxes. It doesn’t make money, the end goal is to explore space, collecting data, making scientific research, etc. This can be done by the Space Agency, or they could pay a company to provide the services to achieve their goal, in that case the company will make money because the government pay them to do it.
Then you have the military. They have things like GPS, communication and spy satellites. In that case, they will pay a company to build and send their equipment just like they would do with a tank or a fighter jet.
Finally, you have purely commercial stuff. Satellite are used in communication, weather forecasting, television signal, internet, etc. Many stuff we use everyday need satellites to work and so the company that provide that service had to pay a space company to build and send that satellite in orbit and then that service provider recuperate their cost by selling their service to consumer.
It depend what you are talking about.
If it’s for simply exploration of space, then it’s usually governmental programs that will pay for it through taxes. It doesn’t make money, the end goal is to explore space, collecting data, making scientific research, etc. This can be done by the Space Agency, or they could pay a company to provide the services to achieve their goal, in that case the company will make money because the government pay them to do it.
Then you have the military. They have things like GPS, communication and spy satellites. In that case, they will pay a company to build and send their equipment just like they would do with a tank or a fighter jet.
Finally, you have purely commercial stuff. Satellite are used in communication, weather forecasting, television signal, internet, etc. Many stuff we use everyday need satellites to work and so the company that provide that service had to pay a space company to build and send that satellite in orbit and then that service provider recuperate their cost by selling their service to consumer.
Government space programs are not designed to make money. Private space programs get a lot of their money from governments.
There are some parts that are profitable like putting satellites in orbit.
People will pay you to put their satellite in orbit for them. Some of the people who will pay you to put their satellites in orbit will be governments other will be private companies that actually make money with them.
SpaceX gets a lot of their money from the US governemtn and some from paying customers to put their satellite up there. Some of the satellites they put up are their own like starlink, which they hope to turn into a profitable business.
Government space programs are not designed to make money. Private space programs get a lot of their money from governments.
There are some parts that are profitable like putting satellites in orbit.
People will pay you to put their satellite in orbit for them. Some of the people who will pay you to put their satellites in orbit will be governments other will be private companies that actually make money with them.
SpaceX gets a lot of their money from the US governemtn and some from paying customers to put their satellite up there. Some of the satellites they put up are their own like starlink, which they hope to turn into a profitable business.
Government space programs are not designed to make money. Private space programs get a lot of their money from governments.
There are some parts that are profitable like putting satellites in orbit.
People will pay you to put their satellite in orbit for them. Some of the people who will pay you to put their satellites in orbit will be governments other will be private companies that actually make money with them.
SpaceX gets a lot of their money from the US governemtn and some from paying customers to put their satellite up there. Some of the satellites they put up are their own like starlink, which they hope to turn into a profitable business.
Government programs mostly do not make money. They are budgeted a certain amount of money from the government, and told what the government wants them to do. Just like the military or the EPA or whatever, the government agencies do have some input into what or how they will go about meeting the bigger goals assigned to them, but the goals are defined for them. They did not create themselves and say “we are going to do this so give us money”.
Government agencies do also provide some chargeable services, so do profit from some things they do (like launching satellites for private owners isn’t free for the satellite owner, they get charged for it). Private companies work by providing such services, at a price. A lot of the private space service companies do jobs for the government (are replacing the government agencies for some of the work). Companies will only exist if they make profit, so they charge cost plus profit for all services they perform, and they will keep on providing the services as long as the company makes money.
Private companies exist because someone decided that he (they) could provide the service and make money doing it. They will stay in business only as long as the investors make money, or can deal with losing money (in the hope of eventually making money) after a bit of time. I imagine the start-up cost for a space service is pretty high, and the time frame before making profit is fairly long. government agencies do not have to worry about that. They only have to worry about convincing the government to keep funding them, which will happen as long as the government sees the need for the tasks and goals. The amount of money provided will change but will rarely ever just STOP. The need is always there, just a matter of how much money is going to be directed to filling the need. However, they will be in competition with the private companies, so they also have to pay attention to costs; it isn’t a free ride.
Government programs mostly do not make money. They are budgeted a certain amount of money from the government, and told what the government wants them to do. Just like the military or the EPA or whatever, the government agencies do have some input into what or how they will go about meeting the bigger goals assigned to them, but the goals are defined for them. They did not create themselves and say “we are going to do this so give us money”.
Government agencies do also provide some chargeable services, so do profit from some things they do (like launching satellites for private owners isn’t free for the satellite owner, they get charged for it). Private companies work by providing such services, at a price. A lot of the private space service companies do jobs for the government (are replacing the government agencies for some of the work). Companies will only exist if they make profit, so they charge cost plus profit for all services they perform, and they will keep on providing the services as long as the company makes money.
Private companies exist because someone decided that he (they) could provide the service and make money doing it. They will stay in business only as long as the investors make money, or can deal with losing money (in the hope of eventually making money) after a bit of time. I imagine the start-up cost for a space service is pretty high, and the time frame before making profit is fairly long. government agencies do not have to worry about that. They only have to worry about convincing the government to keep funding them, which will happen as long as the government sees the need for the tasks and goals. The amount of money provided will change but will rarely ever just STOP. The need is always there, just a matter of how much money is going to be directed to filling the need. However, they will be in competition with the private companies, so they also have to pay attention to costs; it isn’t a free ride.
Government programs mostly do not make money. They are budgeted a certain amount of money from the government, and told what the government wants them to do. Just like the military or the EPA or whatever, the government agencies do have some input into what or how they will go about meeting the bigger goals assigned to them, but the goals are defined for them. They did not create themselves and say “we are going to do this so give us money”.
Government agencies do also provide some chargeable services, so do profit from some things they do (like launching satellites for private owners isn’t free for the satellite owner, they get charged for it). Private companies work by providing such services, at a price. A lot of the private space service companies do jobs for the government (are replacing the government agencies for some of the work). Companies will only exist if they make profit, so they charge cost plus profit for all services they perform, and they will keep on providing the services as long as the company makes money.
Private companies exist because someone decided that he (they) could provide the service and make money doing it. They will stay in business only as long as the investors make money, or can deal with losing money (in the hope of eventually making money) after a bit of time. I imagine the start-up cost for a space service is pretty high, and the time frame before making profit is fairly long. government agencies do not have to worry about that. They only have to worry about convincing the government to keep funding them, which will happen as long as the government sees the need for the tasks and goals. The amount of money provided will change but will rarely ever just STOP. The need is always there, just a matter of how much money is going to be directed to filling the need. However, they will be in competition with the private companies, so they also have to pay attention to costs; it isn’t a free ride.
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