The idea of mass producing satellites to give people better internet connections in rural areas is not a wild concept my guy. Space-x wasn’t the first to think of that, they just managed to execute it before anyone else because of how much money they have.

If you’re taking into account StarLink, probably space x. We’re talking about being innovative though, not the mass production of satellites that give you a better internet connection in rural area’s. That’s not being innovative, Space x’s innovation has come from their rocketry.

“They’ve pushed the boundaries far more than anyone else, and far ahead of anyone else”. That’s obviously highly debatable from the statement I just listed above. Have they innovated and pushed the field of rocketry forward? Absolutely they have. But to say they’ve pushed the boundaries far more than anyone else, tells me you don’t pay attention all that much to what actually goes on inside the aerospace industry. The Space industry is way more than just Rockets.

I’m not underselling their innovative success, I’m saying a lot of the attention the company brings to themselves is because of Elon. He’s the richest man in the world, and currently a huge figure head. Companies like Northrop, Boeing, etc don’t get 10x the publicity that space-x does. A lot of that is because of Elon. How many people actually know that Northrop built JWST? Most people would tell you it was NASA.

Again, I think space-x does good stuff with respect to rocketry, they’re innovative on that forefront. But, they’re the not the only players in the game that are innovating. As someone who works for Northrop Grumman, I can ensure that from experience. Especially within the business sector I currently work in.

James Webb to me personally is one of the greatest feats of engineering in the 21st century (thus far). Space X has made strides and innovation in the realm of rocketry, but they’re not the only ones pushing boundaries in the aerospace industry. They just get the most media attention because of Elon.

Which is funny because Northrop specifically, is mostly responsible (being the main contractor) for engineering the worlds most powerful and technologically advanced telescope. It doesn’t get any more flashy than that.

Fair enough. But you have to understand that 90% of the commercial efforts that go towards space exploration, (i.e. Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, ULA, etc) do contracts with the DOD in some way or another.

Raytheon and Lockheed have us beat by a fairly large margin, especially Lockheed. Assuming you think this is bad, I never understood this logic. It’s better being the worlds largest leader in military technology, as opposed to someone like Russia or Iran. Somebody is going to continue to innovate on that front, and I’m glad it’s us. Regardless of that though, defense contracts believe or it not with respect to Northrop specifically, are actually a little over 40% of what we actually do. I work in their Transformational Computing business sector, where we’re currently innovating new ways to implement superconducting Qubits (I.e. quantum computing). A huge part of our reputation comes from defense in the media sphere because of projects like the B-21. Which is an amazing piece of engineering, regardless of what you think it from a strategic perspective.