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I do hope the doomers who think that the entire US government has been completely gutted will take note of this. The government workforce is in a bad spot for s
by 0xffff2 6mo ago
I do hope the doomers who think that the entire US government has been completely gutted will take note of this. The government workforce is in a bad spot for sure, SLS is far from a perfect program, but this still demonstrates that we are doing some real work still.
- Blackthorn 6mo agoLet's not jinx them; let them get home safe before we take a victory lap.
- oofbey 6mo agoExactly. The heat shield problems and lack of full disclosure are quite troubling.
- cyanydeez 6mo ago[flagged]
- bradhe 6mo agoI have a really hard time telling if this is despite the current administration’s best efforts, because the current administration’s policies, or just an artifact of government inertia. Top level: Super excited to witness this in my lifetime. Edit: Also, my 40 years of life leads me towards the latter category.
- ls612 6mo agoNASA has been well treated by both parties in general, with their budget rising faster than inflation most years. This administration also appointed Isaacman to be the NASA administrator which I think is a 10/10 choice for that job.
- ryandrake 6mo agoAll of NASA's climate work is under attack by the current administration.
- angelgonzales 6mo agoI’d argue that NASA should not have ever got into studying climate science, it should be a responsibility of NOAA. NASA should be focusing on NEP, atmospheric satellites, better aircraft, making life interplanetary and astronomy.
- turtletontine 6mo agoIt’s not that simple. Trump admin requested a massive cut to NASA’s budget, which after much delay Congress finally rejected. Isaacman’s path to NASA administrator was also, erm, circuitous. Having a competent and knowledgeable NASA head was not really Trump admin’s priority.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoDefinitely despite.
- 0xffff2 6mo agoFor sure this is 90% inertia, although like Bridenstein in the first administration, who turned out to actually be a pretty good administrator in the grand scheme of things, I'm cautiously optimistic that Isaacman is working in good faith to make NASA the best it can be. (Which isn't to say that I agree with him 100% mind you.)
- weberer 6mo agoHow exactly would you interpret this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Redefinition_and_naming_as_Artemis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Redefinition_a...
- Arodex 6mo ago[flagged]
- yokoprime 6mo agoWhile the current administration has multiple areas of improvement and isnt really taking feedback in an adult manner, the federal workforce has some of the most competent people working for it inside certain parts of the organization. im thinking especially of NASA and NASA JPL.
- tails4e 6mo agoThis is true, but a lot of the top positions are being replaced with unqualified loyalists. It's only a matter of time, if this continues, that the competent workforce gets eroded
- NetMageSCW 6mo agoNASA also has some of the most incompetent people working for it, and a lot of them are responsible for overseeing SLS and Orion. JPL hasn’t been doing to well lately either (Mars Return?).
- mullingitover 6mo agoJPL has been strangled by both parties. They had huge staff cuts in 2024, and then more in 2025. They've gone from ~6,500 to ~4,500. Trump closed their research library[1]. Of course this is a drop in the bucket, the entire science research apparatus of the United States is being burned to the ground[2]. This administration is doing to the future of scientific research what the Mongols did to Baghdad. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/climate/nasa-goddard-library-closing.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/climate/nasa-goddard-libr... [2] https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.ht...
- jamiek88 6mo agoIt’s Orion that’s dodgy as fuck not the booster. I.e the new thing. Not the decades old, proven, launch engines. Let’s wait for the back patting when they splash down. I genuinely hope not but i am worried about this craft.
- JumpCrisscross 6mo ago> Orion that’s dodgy as fuck not the booster. I.e the new thing I mean, newly shaped and partly reformulated. Avcoat was “originally created…for the Apollo program” [1]. (“A reformulated version was used for the initial Orion heat shield and later for a redesigned Orion heat shield.”) The new things are Orion’s size and weight and the size of the tiles. All of which has precedented flight in Artemis I. At the end of the day, I’m going to trust the astronauts. This issue was openly discussed, despite NASA’s original—and fair to criticize—instinct to cover it up. While any manned reëntry is a nail biter, I don’t think this one is especially so. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCOAT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCOAT
- justinator 6mo agoAren't astronauts by definition bat shit crazy? We have people lining up for one-way missions to Mars. Not to say this is a bad thing, but their ROI calculations are not normal.
- JumpCrisscross 6mo ago> Aren't astronauts by definition bat shit crazy? By poetic definition, e.g. “Here’s to the Crazy Ones,” yes. Clinically and technically, no. They’re paragons of human explorers, and exploration is a fundamentally human trait. > We have people lining up for one-way missions to Mars How many astronauts?
- justinator 6mo agoI think sometimes, clinically: yes. https://www.houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2018/11/astronaut-diapers https://www.houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2018/11/astr... > How many astronauts? More than we can send. Wasn't there a country-wide competition?
- __loam 6mo agoGo look at the amount of grants getting funded this year and tell me we aren't completely gutting the national research apparatus.
- justinator 6mo agoI just need to look locally and see we're in trouble. NIST, NCAR. Super Drought conditions forming in the West. This isn't good. But hurray Moon missions, I guess. Pity we're causing the entire World Economy to collapse with a unneeded war.
- Apocryphon 6mo agoRather unfortunate timing that the original Apollo moon landing also happened in the middle of the Vietnam War.
- justinator 6mo agoHonestly, that coincidence was NOT lost on me. Part of me finds it inappropriate to do the two things at once. Advancement in scientific knowledge being somewhat at odds with blowing up one of the oldest civilizations in the World.
- NetMageSCW 6mo agoYour life must pass by really slowly with a lot of waiting if you don’t do more than one thing at a time.
- justinator 6mo agoIt's a game of priorities I guess when resources are limited. And no: I can't do everything, everywhere, all at once. Can you? Big rocks in the pickle jar first. For you that includes wars when talking was working?
- mrexroad 6mo ago
- pengaru 6mo agoApril 1; I see what you did there, well played.
- justinator 6mo agoWe'd look better if there was still a USAID.
- alex43578 6mo ago[flagged]
- justinator 6mo agoIf anything shouldn't be allowed to be taken, it's my money for a war that wasn't even green lit by Congress. Ain't no transgender opera in Colombia did kill anyone.
- alex43578 6mo agoI agree the government needs to spend far less money on all of these things. Deficit spending to pay for tax cuts is bad and tax hikes to redistribute wealth is also bad.
- tw04 6mo agoTake note of a project that’s about 15 years behind schedule and many multiples over budget finally progressed because we lowered safety standards to just launch? I’m not sure how that’s proof the government isn’t gutted. Let me know what our schedule is for the next one and how that timeline has changed. Ignoring the projects that have been outright canceled… You’re currently the guy saying “ya, all you haters that said I’d lose my house if I stopped paying my mortgage, who’s laughing now?” - one month into not paying your mortgage. We’ll still be dealing with the after effects of doge 20 years from now.
- partiallypro 6mo agoDon't confuse bureaucracy with "gutted." The federal government is bigger than at most any point in US history. Arguably that fact is -why- it's 15 years behind schedule.
- mullingitover 6mo agoNope, the federal workforce is now the smallest it's been in a half century[1]. February 2026: 2.693 million, the lowest number since July 1965. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001
- partiallypro 6mo agoThat's per 100k (which just says it's mostly flat per 100k), net spending of the federal government is more than ever, and actual workforce is bigger than ever. Federal spending as a percentage of GDP is stubbornly high despite us being in "peace time," and not recession spending. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W068RCQ027SBEA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W068RCQ027SBEA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USGOVT https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USGOVT https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S If you all don't think bureaucracy is the main driver of government delays...well you clearly have never worked with or in and around government. I try to live in reality.
- fortran77 6mo ago[flagged]
- hagbard_c 6mo agoI certainly hope the mission goes as planned but it does feel like SLS is the wrong approach in the time of reusable rockets, even if this specific mission profile would probably have demanded the booster be expendable. Using the Shuttle main engines - designed and made to be 'refurbishable' rather than 'reusable' but still dumped into the ocean after each mission - and the SRBs (solid boosters) still gives the impression of the booster design being dictated (at least in part) to accommodate the needs of former Shuttle contractors. If either Starship+Superheavy or some other fully reusable heavy left vehicle comes on-line it will be hard for NASA to justify spending billions of $ on, well, a flying pork barrel. Sure, it has been proven time and time again that canned pigs can in fact fly but that does not make them the go-to transport.
- XorNot 6mo agoConversely SLS is ready now. Starship and Super Heavy are not and cannot do this mission today.
- none2585 6mo agoWe are basically going this to funnel more tax payer dollars to musk or bezos. What a moment for humanity
- NetMageSCW 6mo agoWrong in every way.
- none2585 6mo ago> The mission's objectives are to conduct tests in low Earth orbit with one or both commercially developed lunar landers—SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon—and the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) space suit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_III?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_III?wprov=sfla1
- mrexroad 6mo agoHave you talked to any actual NASA employees (not just contractors) that work in science? For what it’s worth, I watched today’s Artemis II launch with them. While proud of the mission, they’re likely in your “Doomer” category after a year being devastated and demoralized by having their science budgets slashed, grants/projects cancelled, having been forced to fire good contractors of 10+ years and then watching some of the most knowledgeable/skilled folks take early retirement. Don’t let the awe or Artemis fool you — NASA, especially when it comes to science, has been gutted and functionally degraded. For what it’s worth, they’re not focused on earth/climate science.
- 0xffff2 6mo agoYep, I work with them every day, since I am myself a NASA contractor. I'm curious what you think the major distinction is between a contractor and a civil servant in the first place. I work directly as part of a division (used to be "on site" before 2020, but now I'm remote so that doesn't quite fit) doing 80% the same job as any of my civil servant colleagues. I really don't think the range of opinions is all that different on either side of the fence. I'll repeat that there are a lot of problems, but it's not nearly as bad as some people on the internet make it out to be.
- mrexroad 6mo agoFair question—I probably overly delineated the two as I currently only know people on the civil servant side at NASA. Decades ago (!) I worked in the DC, hung out some folks, and often the ones who had strong opinions related to policy were the ones at risk of losing/keeping/winning a contract, not the government employees. That was probably in the back of my head when I made the distinction. I don’t really have a strong opinion either way now, but I felt it was only fair to answer you as best I could. Either way, I’ll try to be cognizant of that potential bias in future. With that said, and while I haven’t had much exposure to what folks on the internet are saying, all I know is I’ve never seen this group of friends this worried or impacted. Most of them are also the type to just keep their heads down, focus on the mission, and wait for the winds shift.
- protocolture 6mo agoNot entirely a doomer, but I would wait to grandstand until after the crew is returned safely, considering the allegations regarding the capsule heat shield.
- Arodex 6mo ago"That this Artemis launch is happening in the lead-up to America’s 250th birthday has heightened the sense that it’s a nostalgia act for the Baby Boomer gerontocracy. All the more so because Donald Trump, the oldest person ever to be elected to the White House, is presiding over the whole affair. His administration has sought to sabotage NASA’s scientific missions, but the president seems delighted to have the agency gin up a national spectacle on his behalf, just as he was happy to have a military parade on his birthday." https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/04/artemis-moon-launch-trump/686661/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/04/artemis-moon-lau...