That might have been because NASA was a national project and so national pride was involved. Showing the military strength and size would have been part of the overall story that the NASA program was showing.
Agreed, but the difference in scale is so extreme.
Looking out my office window, I can see a fairly major sea port. The Navy can't get 1 ship off the dock without a half dozen tug boats, plus several security boats, etc. The flotilla SpaceX sent out is smaller than what it takes to undock 1 ship, and a carrier battle group consists of 20+ ships.
I just find the contrast really illustrative of why SpaceX was able to do this for a fraction of the cost.
You're assuming that NASA 'pays' for the flotilla the same way spacex pays for its gear. Think about it, SpaceX probably rents/leases the gear it needs for the time it needs and knows exactly what it costs.
Nasa can basically call the local navy detachment and ask them to swoop in. It's not clear that is accounted for in the NASA budget vs. the normal operating budget of that battle group.
Similarly, when NASA says something costs 20k to get to orbit, they're saying that because that's what they told someone it would cost when justifying the program. The real cost of things like a shuttle recovery are never as easy to track as one might think.
Almost certainly. Military overflights of stadiums are written off as training exercises routinely (and if the pilots have to spend a certain number of hours flying, why not do something some other people like for a few of them?)
When has NASA every utilized a carrier battle group of 20 ships? I'd also suspect that the Navy can make locating a capsule and scooping up its astronauts as part of a training mission that they would be doing otherwise. Search and rescue is a pretty big deal, they practice it a lot. It's not like our Naval fleet is on the dry unless we're at war.
I'm not 100% certain for ships but there is a 'pricelist'[1] for when military aircraft are used by other commands/services or even 'non-government' use.
NASA has to pay for when military aircraft are used in support of there research or operations. SpaceX, as covered under Space Act agreement, would be able to obtain appropriate aircraft from the US Navy, such as a P-3 maritime patrol aircraft.
But yeah, you don't actually need a carrier battle group to retrieve a single capsule. On the other hand, if you've got a spare aircraft carrier sitting around the ocean you might as well use it. (You don't need the rest of the battle group to pick up the capsule, either, but you need it to protect the carrier in case a war breaks out.)
