4 ms·

Seems like this has all been a show and that the SLS was never expected to launch

by kurupt213 4y ago

bowsamic 4y ago
How did you ascertain this?
- politician 4y ago
  It’s so astronomically expensive ($2B per vehicle, no reuse) that if it does launch, I would predict they’ll only ever launch a few until the next group of politicians arrive to cut wasteful spending.
  - jfengel 4y ago
    "Wasteful" is always in the eye of the beholder. Spending in one's own district is never "wasteful". It's only other people's spending that is a waste. So while politicians love to talk about cutting "waste", they never actually do. It's something that exists in aggregate but somehow no actual program ever gets cut. Each program does exist for a reason. Cutting the budget is about making hard choices between reasons. And nobody ever loses reelection for failing to make hard choices. The US has the luxury of being able to borrow cheaply, and it's not necessarily a bad thing to do so. But that means that the politicians campaigning most loudly about "waste" get to say a lot without ever grappling with genuine issues.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Not sure that I agree with the comment. However, the reality is NASA has tried to fuel this rocket before. They had rolled out the rocket in a Wet Dress rehearsal. They tried multiple times and failed each time. Then they rolled it back in and said, in a few weeks we are gone launch. And everybody that was following this was like 'Seriously? You failed to fuel this rocket every single time you tried, and now you want to launch?'. So when they tried again 2 times fuel the rocket and both times it failed to be fueled nobody at all was surprised. We are now at 10+ attempts and not a single time has the rocket ever been actually fully fueled. So really this was more of a Wet Dress rehearsal then a launch attempt. Many people now demand of NASA, do a real Wet Dress rehearsal and actually prove that you can actually fuel this thing before you actually try to launch it.
  - kurupt213 4y ago
    You captured my feelings much more eloquently than I would have. It would have been fine if they acknowledged some fueling problems and said they wanted to continue troubleshooting on the launch platform so they could test everything there while it was assembled. That way they could work on problems found there while disassembling the rocket to fix the hydrogen fuel leaks back in the assembly room

Seems like this has all been a show and that the SLS was never expected to launch

bowsamic 4y ago

How did you ascertain this?

politician 4y ago
It’s so astronomically expensive ($2B per vehicle, no reuse) that if it does launch, I would predict they’ll only ever launch a few until the next group of politicians arrive to cut wasteful spending.
- jfengel 4y ago
  "Wasteful" is always in the eye of the beholder. Spending in one's own district is never "wasteful". It's only other people's spending that is a waste. So while politicians love to talk about cutting "waste", they never actually do. It's something that exists in aggregate but somehow no actual program ever gets cut. Each program does exist for a reason. Cutting the budget is about making hard choices between reasons. And nobody ever loses reelection for failing to make hard choices. The US has the luxury of being able to borrow cheaply, and it's not necessarily a bad thing to do so. But that means that the politicians campaigning most loudly about "waste" get to say a lot without ever grappling with genuine issues.
panick21_ 4y ago
Not sure that I agree with the comment. However, the reality is NASA has tried to fuel this rocket before. They had rolled out the rocket in a Wet Dress rehearsal. They tried multiple times and failed each time. Then they rolled it back in and said, in a few weeks we are gone launch. And everybody that was following this was like 'Seriously? You failed to fuel this rocket every single time you tried, and now you want to launch?'. So when they tried again 2 times fuel the rocket and both times it failed to be fueled nobody at all was surprised. We are now at 10+ attempts and not a single time has the rocket ever been actually fully fueled. So really this was more of a Wet Dress rehearsal then a launch attempt. Many people now demand of NASA, do a real Wet Dress rehearsal and actually prove that you can actually fuel this thing before you actually try to launch it.
- kurupt213 4y ago
  You captured my feelings much more eloquently than I would have. It would have been fine if they acknowledged some fueling problems and said they wanted to continue troubleshooting on the launch platform so they could test everything there while it was assembled. That way they could work on problems found there while disassembling the rocket to fix the hydrogen fuel leaks back in the assembly room