In the past two years, space rookies SpaceX can be said to have made the limelight in the space industry, on the one hand, SpaceX's "StarLink" system has been launched many times in a row, and thousands of satellites have been launched into the operating orbit, on the other hand, its newly developed starship has been upgraded unprecedentedly, whether from the overall progress or the core "Raptor" liquid oxygen methane rocket engine, it can be said that SpaceX has further risen to an unprecedented new height. So in the face of such a high-quality innovative enterprise, the traditional veteran military giants of the United States, such as Loma and Boeing, why did not they think of taking advantage of the opportunity to acquire it before this?
In fact, as early as 2002, when SpaceX was just founded, the "joint launch alliance" formed by Boeing and Loma in the United States had firmly grasped most of the launch orders of the US military, and relied on the monopoly of technology to make a lot of money. At this time, SpaceX's Falcon 1 carrier rocket was still in a constant state of test failure, so Loma and Boeing did not look at the newborn "calf" at that time.
After the stronger Falcon 9 carrier rocket came out, and the first stage rocket recovery mechanism began to verify the feasibility of low-cost rockets, the outside world was still not very optimistic about the development of Falcon 9 at that time, because at that time, although the Falcon 9 could theoretically recover the most core stage rocket, greatly reducing the launch cost, but successive recovery failures also made the outside world still suspicious of SpaceX's ability to support it, and finally it was good that Musk passed another technology company under it." Tesla's "listing circle money" and NASA's exclusive favor to give it a number of launch orders have allowed SpaceX, which is already struggling, to continue to have money to launch experiments.
But at this time, the "United Launch Alliance" still does not pay much attention to the Falcon 9, after all, after the retirement of NASA's core business at this time, most of the military and commercial launch orders are in the hands of the United Launch Alliance, so relying on the monopoly method, the United Launch Alliance has increased its price sharply, and it is still full of pots.
However, after NASA did not think about itself, it allocated most of the annual budget to private space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, supporting their bold innovation, subverting the traditional rocket launch model, and constantly supporting the gradual development and growth of private space companies including SpaceX through launch orders.
In this way, these private space companies supported by NASA, especially SpaceX's Falcon 9, have not only significantly reduced the launch cost of rockets through multiple recoveries, but also developed the Falcon Heavy carrier rocket and the latest and strongest "starship" super heavy carrier rocket and supporting liquid oxygen methane rocket engines that can basically support human moon and Mars migration. At this time, the United Launch Alliance finally woke up, because more and more launch orders, including many high-value military launch orders that they had previously enjoyed exclusively, have been transferred to the hands of these private space companies.
But at this time, when these arms giants in the United States wanted to take the opportunity to acquire SpaceX, they found that Elon Musk, the controlling person behind Space X, had already grown into the "world's richest man" for a period of time through Space X and Tesla, and both Tesla and SpaceX had a particularly good momentum of development, and it was not only very costly to acquire Musk, but also Musk, who was already short of money, was not necessarily willing to sell. Therefore, these military giants in the United States have missed the "best time for multiple rounds of acquisitions".
Of course, In the 20 years since its founding, Space X has not been acquired even in the most difficult period, and there is another reason that the US government will not approve this "acquisition" at all. Because for the U.S. government, especially after the decommissioning of the space shuttle in 2011, the U.S. government urgently needs to support a powerful space company to continue to maintain the space status of the United States, but at this time, the United Launch Alliance relies on its own monopoly, and is not willing to listen to NASA's opinion, only thinking about how to increase the launch offer. Therefore, NASA began to support these private space companies such as SpaceX, hoping that the development of these private space companies can put pressure on the United Launch Alliance and promote its rapid innovation; on the other hand, it is also hoped that these private space companies can use their new ideas to enhance the US space strength at the same time, but also effectively control the launch cost, after all, the decommissioning of the space shuttle in 2011 is not bad, but because its launch cost is getting higher and higher.
So SpaceX, as a catfish and goldfish, under the protection of the U.S. government, is even more unlikely to acquire it. Just like Intel has had many opportunities to acquire competitor AMD, but it has never succeeded.
Especially in the past five years, SpaceX is in the rapid growth of the times, the U.S. government for such sensitive high-tech, but also has a very large military background of the acquisition, cooperation supervision is becoming more and more stringent, such as in recent years after the development of hypersonic weapons into the mainstream, the world's largest military giant Loma Company, there is a desire to acquire the largest domestic rocket engine company "Rockdine", in order to accelerate the pace of the United States in the field of hypersonic by China and Russia. But at a time when U.S. hypersonic weapons have fallen seriously behind China and Russia, the U.S. government still vetoed the acquisition bill on the grounds that it was "worried about the fall of the horse to buy Rockdine" and cut off the supply of rocket engines to other competitors.
Of course, for the military giants such as Loma and Boeing, there is also the meaning of their own dare not buy, because the "antitrust" monopoly law in the United States makes many American companies dare not become oligarchs who monopolize a certain industry in the country, such as the Rockefeller family's Standard Oil "in the early 20th century has become a monopoly of the United States oil energy giants, the result was forcibly split by the US government into 34 subsidiaries including Mobil Oil, Chevrolet and so on, and today these 34 subsidiaries although after merger, The acquisition has merged into several energy giants, but it still controls the energy arteries of the United States, so this is why Standard Oil was forcibly split.
Like at AT&T, the American Telecom and Telegraph Company, which relied on many patents invented by Bell Labs, it had a complete monopoly on all communication services in the United States in the 20s and 30s of the last century, including telephone communication charges, which were set by AT&T itself. So in 1984 the U.S. government forcibly split it into eight competing independent subsidiaries. So why has Intel had so many opportunities over the years without trying to buy its only competitor, AMD? It is afraid that after being acquired, it will be forcibly split into dozens of subsidiaries by the US government, but it will not be worth the loss.
Also for the United Launch Alliance's Boeing and Loma companies, one is the largest aerospace company in the United States, which has firmly grasped nearly half of the world's trunk airliner market and part of the regional airliner market; the other is that there are more optical military codes than Microsoft every year, and it involves the world's largest arms dealer in aerospace, aviation, maritime, land, military, civilian and other fields, so for these two companies, take the opportunity to acquire a space company that is on the rise. If the acquisition is successfully not forcibly split by the US government, SpaceX, which is acquired later, will also become a time bomb, and after continuous expansion, It will blow up Loma or Boeing and completely decompose into several or even dozen independent companies with different businesses.