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Old 09-20-2018, 02:23 PM   #175 (permalink)
jamesqf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hamsterpower View Post
How many tens of thousands would it have cost Space X to do what most rocket builders do in this case? Build a two ton block of concrete or steel. This car was something he had and could do without at little to no cost. The pay back was a lot of publicity for the both young companies. Seems like a worthy business decision to me.
How much extra did they spend building a cradle to hold the Tesla in place?

WRT to publicity, it's not entirely true that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Sure, the Tesla fanboys might have gotten all hot & bothered over the launch, but they were already fans. (See "preaching to the choir" :-)) But I would guess the overall effect on the marginal future customers was negative.

It's also possible to get the publicity without the waste. Consider the amount of publicity WalMart has gotten out of Sam Walton's pickup over the years. Musk could have gotten better publicity by say raffling off the car, and using the money to fund student space experiments...
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