3 ms·

Did ULA actually do anything to deserve your scorn?

• valuearb 6y ago
  ULA was created to make a semi-monopoly to suck at the teats of the US governments pork farm. They’ve never created a new rocket or launch system, or advanced space exploration in any meaningful way. Instead they just kept flying the same old tired designs until they became utterly obsolete. Fortunately another company came along and dramatically undercut their monopolistic pricing while providing the most valuable technological innovations space launch has seen since the 1960s. And now ULA is irrelevant and on a long term path to dissolution. Bailing them out with this contract is a near criminal act by the Air Force that shows nothing but favoritism.
  • juped 6y ago
    Well, I like to think of myself as an engineer (on a good day), and I think 100% successful launches with "old tired designs" is bragworthy.
    • valuearb 6y ago
      It’s not bragworthy if you achieve zero forward progress in creating new capabilities. The Atlas, Titan and Delta series of rockets were great 50 years ago, but rapidly aging twenty years ago and so expensive they were holding back progress in space. It’s like Henry Ford focusing on making the original Model T higher quality, but not cheaper. It would be a great accomplishment if he doubled the number of miles between servicing and halved the rate at which key components broke. But if he’s not also reducing its costs dramatically, it robs the world of the worst affordable car for the masses, a far higher achievement.
      • juped 6y ago
        Some people need payloads put into space.
• asimpletune 6y ago
  Not really, more like the pentagon? This thread though has been really interesting and I definitely feel like I have a more nuanced view than I held before, so thanks.