>This silliness is explained by the fact that NASA employees want to work on this project, even if it's going to cost more and deliver less than other teams wor

>This silliness is explained by the fact that NASA employees want to work on this project, even if it's going to cost more and deliver less than other teams working on it. Not at all. It's explained by the fact that congress keeps putting more money in the space launch system than NASA itself requests; moving money to the project that NASA would like to use for its commercial programs. It's not NASA being silly here – it's congress wanting to impress the world with its own space system.