NASA seems to normalize deviance when they're under political pressure to do so. I'm not sure they can be entirely trusted when it comes to their own launch sys

NASA seems to normalize deviance when they're under political pressure to do so. I'm not sure they can be entirely trusted when it comes to their own launch systems, because of the politics involved - but so far they haven't shown similar hesitancy with commercial launch systems. It's a good separation of concerns; when NASA is "just the customer" and it's not "their rocket" they are in a better position to hold a firm line on safety issues. That NASA did not see the parachute as an issue speaks volumes. It looked bad visually, but having watched enough space launches and how mission control reacts to off-nominal data - clearly they were comfortable with the performance, because they didn't flinch at all. NASA just doesn't sign off on these commercial launches with NASA astronauts on board if they have any inkling that something won't go right - they aren't under the political pressure to "save the Shuttle program" or whatever. I have more concern about NASA getting politically-imposed "go fever" with SLS.