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I'm familiar with both Zubrin (two of his books within arms-reach as a I type this) and generally how NG/Innovation Systems does business (having worked at a le

I'm familiar with both Zubrin (two of his books within arms-reach as a I type this) and generally how NG/Innovation Systems does business (having worked at a legacy ATK plant). I don't disagree that they often make money via cost-plus contracts, that SLS is mainly a jobs program, or any of that. What I disagree with is your apparent inherent assumption that it's malicious. Nobody's "milking" anything - Hanlon's razor, remember. Never assume malice when stupidity (I'd prefer "incompetence") is an adequate explanation. The project managers at ULA, at Boeing, at Lockheed, at Northrop, aren't monsters trying to squeeze more money from the taxpayer. They, quite simply, believe that this is the way you have to build a rocket and you can't possibly do it any cheaper. They do pride themselves on being able to deliver things ahead of schedule and under budget, except they can't because everybody expects projects to be behind schedule and over budget, since that's the way it's always gone. Traditional expectations have a stranglehold on the oldspace industry. I've also worked for a newspace company - there was none of that attitude. Don't assume the astronautics primes are evil. They're just... old.

Veedrac 5y ago
But it's not incompetence, these companies have made exorbitant amounts of money doing this. Congress rewards being late, overbudget, and inefficiently structured. The companies extoll the benefits of manufacturing in practically every state. We know Boeing was in bed with NASA, per Doug Loverro's removal. There's even the story of Boeing killing ULA's fuel depot ambitions because it threatened SLS. > "We had released a series of papers showing how a depot/refueling architecture would enable a human exploration program using existing (at the time) commercial rockets," Sowers tweeted on Wednesday. "Boeing became furious and tried to get me fired. Kudos to my CEO for protecting me. But we were banned from even saying the 'd' word out loud. Sad part is that ULA did a lot of pathfinding work in that area and could have owned the refueling/depot market, enriching Boeing (and Lockheed) in the process. But it was shut down because it threatened SLS." https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/rocket-scientist-says-that-boeing-squelched-work-on-propellant-depots/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/rocket-scientist-say... Even if the majority of employees are just there to work on the future of rocketry, if the incentives all reward the companies for being as overbudget and underperforming as possible, they are going to respond by being overbudget and underperforming.

Veedrac 5y ago

But it's not incompetence, these companies have made exorbitant amounts of money doing this. Congress rewards being late, overbudget, and inefficiently structured. The companies extoll the benefits of manufacturing in practically every state. We know Boeing was in bed with NASA, per Doug Loverro's removal. There's even the story of Boeing killing ULA's fuel depot ambitions because it threatened SLS. > "We had released a series of papers showing how a depot/refueling architecture would enable a human exploration program using existing (at the time) commercial rockets," Sowers tweeted on Wednesday. "Boeing became furious and tried to get me fired. Kudos to my CEO for protecting me. But we were banned from even saying the 'd' word out loud. Sad part is that ULA did a lot of pathfinding work in that area and could have owned the refueling/depot market, enriching Boeing (and Lockheed) in the process. But it was shut down because it threatened SLS." https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/rocket-scientist-says-that-boeing-squelched-work-on-propellant-depots/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/rocket-scientist-say... Even if the majority of employees are just there to work on the future of rocketry, if the incentives all reward the companies for being as overbudget and underperforming as possible, they are going to respond by being overbudget and underperforming.