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I am there with you. If only we could somehow make the public sector hire it's own personnel, pay it well and let it build the rockets instead of feeding eithe

by mordae 4y ago

I am there with you. If only we could somehow make the public sector hire it's own personnel, pay it well and let it build the rockets instead of feeding either Boeing shareholders or the narcissistic idiot. Most people convinced of public sector inferiority only perceive the hollowed out and thoroughly corrupted husk left by the neoliberal policies. Mostly because it's been systematically destroyed their whole life and they never noticed.

coffeeblack 4y ago
You mean the Russian space program? They are still flying their one good ship developed 70 years ago. And the money goes to a handful of corrupt people who are good friends with “the leader”. Or take ESA. They are currently struggling to finish development of Ariane 6. A rocket with tech already obsolete years before it is even ready to fly for the first time.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
Boeing, as well as many other contractors, got America to the Moon. The thing you are pining for is utterly Soviet, not the way America's space program has ever worked.
CommieBobDole 4y ago
As others have noted, NASA's rockets have largely been designed, built, and operated by private contractors for its entire history. The difference was that those projects were managed by NASA via cost-plus contracts, often at mind-boggling cost. The crowning achievement of this system was the Apollo program. Which was followed up by the Space Shuttle, a system so expensive and full of compromises that it wasn't really good at much of anything except freezing the state of US space travel at the technological level of 1976 for thirty years. NASA doesn't design and build its own one-off plane when it needs to send some people to a conference in NYC; they buy them commercial airline tickets. Likewise, purchasing launch services from a commercial provider is far cheaper and more effective than engaging contractors to build a rocket to spec.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  NASA Rockets projects were never largely designed by the corporations. NASA has always been deeply involved in the design and micromanaged decisions down to the nuts and bolts.

by mordae 4y ago

coffeeblack 4y ago

You mean the Russian space program? They are still flying their one good ship developed 70 years ago. And the money goes to a handful of corrupt people who are good friends with “the leader”. Or take ESA. They are currently struggling to finish development of Ariane 6. A rocket with tech already obsolete years before it is even ready to fly for the first time.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

Boeing, as well as many other contractors, got America to the Moon. The thing you are pining for is utterly Soviet, not the way America's space program has ever worked.

CommieBobDole 4y ago

As others have noted, NASA's rockets have largely been designed, built, and operated by private contractors for its entire history. The difference was that those projects were managed by NASA via cost-plus contracts, often at mind-boggling cost. The crowning achievement of this system was the Apollo program. Which was followed up by the Space Shuttle, a system so expensive and full of compromises that it wasn't really good at much of anything except freezing the state of US space travel at the technological level of 1976 for thirty years. NASA doesn't design and build its own one-off plane when it needs to send some people to a conference in NYC; they buy them commercial airline tickets. Likewise, purchasing launch services from a commercial provider is far cheaper and more effective than engaging contractors to build a rocket to spec.

s1artibartfast 4y ago
NASA Rockets projects were never largely designed by the corporations. NASA has always been deeply involved in the design and micromanaged decisions down to the nuts and bolts.