Engine Rich

This is EXACTLY the type of wrong that I'm talking about. This is only true if your imagination sucks.

Same as everything else. We'll just pretend like Starship can't do it until Starship does it.

Well, if the witch-hunters say it's actually a legitimate hunt, it must be true. No witch-hunters would ever say that if it weren't true.

When that first orbital data center mega booking comes through, it is going to ROCK this industry so hard.

Couldn't you say the same thing about Blue Origin? Or any future space company? They'll all face the same opportunity cost dilemma you're describing.

Maybe his judgement is compromised by emotional bias?

So your contention is that SpaceX is such an incredible company that they can build the first spacecraft in 50 years to land people on the moon, just as a casual side quest. They're so skilled, so overflowing with talent and resources, that you (as a hater) predict they will accomplish one of the greatest engineering achievements imaginable, as a low priority vestigial side project. Incredible.

Nah we're going to the moon and mars. Have fun throwing your tantrum.

Good questions! @grok what presidential administration was in power when the Starshield contracts and terms were established and implemented?

The combination of Ukraine politics, Elon politics, and SPCX being a public stock has resulted in massive volumes of the dumbest space takes you'll ever see.

The ability to scale is a skill.

The thing you're missing is that you're assuming these countries can just "choose" to have their own version of Starlink. As if previously they just chose not to do it, but now they've chosen to do it. The reality is they've been trying as hard as they can the whole time, and they just can't do it. The fact that they're huffing and puffing now doesn't change that. They can't simply "choose" to do this, anymore than you or I could "choose" to play in the NBA. In other words, this is a skill issue.

"Millions of people living and working in space, as long as we don't have to internally fund the initial crew vehicle."

I do think this might be the most important philosophical question to be discussing though. The idea that the purpose of humanity is to be a biological bootloader is a philosophy with a similar range of implications as the beliefs of any other religion. I.e. coming to this belief is not unlike a Christian "finding God" or "being saved."