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The game isn't mostly the same, look at the commercial crew program, Starliner failed in its first demo mission, now Boeing needs to pay for another demo-1 miss

The game isn't mostly the same, look at the commercial crew program, Starliner failed in its first demo mission, now Boeing needs to pay for another demo-1 mission from their own pocket (they won't get any extra money for the second demo-1 mission); in the past NASA would have paid for another demo-1 mission.

twelve40 6y ago
in other words, they simply got their shit together (making the contractor liable for the actual outcome), plus a couple of new competitors, otherwise things are still ordered by, and directed by the same agencies, no?
- Tuna-Fish 6y ago
  Well, yes. The one big change is moving from cost+ contracts to fixed price ones. Note that doing this is much harder than it sounds, because NASA does not get to decide what kinds of contracts they sign. This is decided by congress, who is still saddling NASA with billion+ dollar cost+ contracts on the SLS rocket.
- cyrrus 6y ago
  It couldn’t be much more different. Before Congress said let’s buy a suit for a wedding. There was only really one tailor. Tailor says how much have you got. Congress says $1 billion but that’s all I’ve got so not a dollar more. Tailor says ‘sure I can make that work’... Fast forward, suit is half way done, wedding is tomorrow, tailor says ‘It’s gonna cost your another billion’ or you get nothing. Congress pays and hopes the wife won’t notice. This happens over and over again. Fast forward to 2020. Finally there’s more than one tailor. Several in fact. The suits are already made and bought off the rack and simply adjusted to fit. Now congress gets to go shopping and has a range of suits to choose from. Original tailor is in deep shit. Instead is spending billions on a suit and waiting forever, they pop down to ZOZO and pick one out and pay $100m. What a bargain I’ll take ten. New tailors in this case - SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin in this case.
- tankenmate 6y ago
  No, they no longer micro manage the process and tell the contractor how to design the rocket or what processes to use. They provide overall specifications and let the contractor decide how to design the rocket. These days the various agencies just verify / do due diligence rather than design and project management.

twelve40 6y ago

in other words, they simply got their shit together (making the contractor liable for the actual outcome), plus a couple of new competitors, otherwise things are still ordered by, and directed by the same agencies, no?

Tuna-Fish 6y ago
Well, yes. The one big change is moving from cost+ contracts to fixed price ones. Note that doing this is much harder than it sounds, because NASA does not get to decide what kinds of contracts they sign. This is decided by congress, who is still saddling NASA with billion+ dollar cost+ contracts on the SLS rocket.
cyrrus 6y ago
It couldn’t be much more different. Before Congress said let’s buy a suit for a wedding. There was only really one tailor. Tailor says how much have you got. Congress says $1 billion but that’s all I’ve got so not a dollar more. Tailor says ‘sure I can make that work’... Fast forward, suit is half way done, wedding is tomorrow, tailor says ‘It’s gonna cost your another billion’ or you get nothing. Congress pays and hopes the wife won’t notice. This happens over and over again. Fast forward to 2020. Finally there’s more than one tailor. Several in fact. The suits are already made and bought off the rack and simply adjusted to fit. Now congress gets to go shopping and has a range of suits to choose from. Original tailor is in deep shit. Instead is spending billions on a suit and waiting forever, they pop down to ZOZO and pick one out and pay $100m. What a bargain I’ll take ten. New tailors in this case - SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin in this case.
tankenmate 6y ago
No, they no longer micro manage the process and tell the contractor how to design the rocket or what processes to use. They provide overall specifications and let the contractor decide how to design the rocket. These days the various agencies just verify / do due diligence rather than design and project management.