04-17-2022, 09:42 PM
Did anyone think this test was going to be a success?
SLS is a POC pushed on NASA by politicians who wanted to keep expensive space industries in their backyards with non-competitive, single-source contracts, and NASA had to make up bogus lunar missions to find a use for it. It's mind bogglingly wasteful with multiple giant single-use engines. Space boffins have been calling for an end to the program since its origins in 2011 and begged for the money to go to something productive. Not a big Musk fan, but Space-X can do more for 1/100th the cost RIGHT NOW.
It has been delayed no less than 16 times now. I think they'll happily delay it many more times just to keep the money flowing.
Also... the "core" is another one of those Boeing projects that will probably never work twice in a row. How would anyone expect Boeing to be able to make a working rocket? They can't make working airplanes these days!
SLS is a POC pushed on NASA by politicians who wanted to keep expensive space industries in their backyards with non-competitive, single-source contracts, and NASA had to make up bogus lunar missions to find a use for it. It's mind bogglingly wasteful with multiple giant single-use engines. Space boffins have been calling for an end to the program since its origins in 2011 and begged for the money to go to something productive. Not a big Musk fan, but Space-X can do more for 1/100th the cost RIGHT NOW.
It has been delayed no less than 16 times now. I think they'll happily delay it many more times just to keep the money flowing.
Also... the "core" is another one of those Boeing projects that will probably never work twice in a row. How would anyone expect Boeing to be able to make a working rocket? They can't make working airplanes these days!