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Had no idea [head of NASA] Bridenstine had visited SpaceX. This is really cool. Here [1] is a video Q/A with Musk, Bridenstine, and the two astronauts who will
by rjf72 7y ago
Had no idea [head of NASA] Bridenstine had visited SpaceX. This is really cool. Here [1] is a video Q/A with Musk, Bridenstine, and the two astronauts who will fly on the first commercial crew shuttle that he (Bridenstine) streamed.
For those unaware of the backstory there Musk recently had a major reveal of SpaceX's StarShip program. Bridenstine made a pretty direct jab the night before saying "I am looking forward to the SpaceX announcement tomorrow. In the meantime, Commercial Crew is years behind schedule. NASA expects to see the same level of enthusiasm focused on the investments of the American taxpayer. It's time to deliver." [2]
That was generally not so well received, since SpaceX is engaged in Commercial Crew (the program to get astronauts to the ISS on commercial launches) but so is Boeing. And SpaceX is substantially far ahead of Boeing on this front. So it felt like a partisan and biased sleight since Boeing, who went unmentioned, has substantially more political influence and clout.
In the Q/A Bridenstine acknowledged he was not really correct on his assumption, which makes me like this guy even more (as he does genuinely seem heavily driven to get the American space program back on track) - even if I think he should have figured this out before racing to publicly Tweet. Looks like he genuinely wants to get Commercial Crew going ASAP and was worried that SpaceX was putting it on the backburner since StarShip is also a really big and extremely ambitious program being done at the same that as Commercial Crew.
[1] - https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OyKAengZAMKb https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OyKAengZAMKb
[2] - https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1177711106300747777 https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/117771110630074777...
- coldtea 7y ago>Had no idea [head of NASA] Bridenstine had visited SpaceX. This is really cool. Why would it be cool / unexpected? Isn't most of SpaceX's funding public money funneled through NASA?
- _Microft 7y agoNASA is SpaceX' largest single customer but not making them the majority of their money if I remember correctly.
- rjf72 7y agoWhen a public figure makes a negative statement against a group or individual in modern times, it's generally a carefully calculated political play that's about as authentic as you'd expect of a politician. Because of this, even when their statement is wrong (and it often is) they'll simply double down on stupid. His rapid followup visit, let alone his public acknowledgement that he was incorrect were major indicators that he's authentic. And this is a big deal because he is not only the most ambitious administrator NASA has had quite a long time but also the most politically capable. And that leaves me highly optimistic for the future of NASA. Bolden (the previous administrator) was everything you want on paper, but in practice he lacked both ambition and political skill. I've no doubt he very much had a love for space and technology, but he simply didn't have the toolkit to make it matter. As a result of this NASA ended up achieving little more than inertial progress for 8 years.
- danpalmer 7y agoMore context, Musk responded to this somewhat snarky comment from Bridenstine: > “From a SpaceX resource standpoint, our resources are overwhelmingly on Falcon and Dragon. Let’s be clear, it was really quite a small percentage of SpaceX that did Starship,” His estimate was that 5% of SpaceX's effort is focused on Starship.
- boznz 7y agoIf they can do starship with 5% of their resources, the future is going to be awesome.