With a successful Falcon 1 mission, Musk plans to start lobbying for a follow-on contract to develop the Falcon 9-Dragon to transport space station crews.
“We haven’t pushed hard yet, even though I think it’s like blindingly obvious as the thing to do because we’re hoping to get to orbit and then on the back of getting to orbit and push hard … because otherwise our detractors have too much ammunition,” Musk said. “They’d say, ‘How can you trust the future of the American space program to a company that hasn’t gotten to orbit?’ That’s the obvious attack. So we hope to get to get to orbit and then they can’t use that attack.”
Musk said he’s expects fierce opposition from companies who stand to gain financially from the shuttles’ continued operations, mainly United Space Alliance, NASA’s prime shuttle contractor.
Okay, so that’s what he expects if the next launch succeeds.
Soooo…..what if it fails? Is that “line of attack” from his “detractors” then a fair criticism?
The success of flight 4 should silence (but probably won’t) the snidest critics.