What happened to NASA is sad

[rukawa]

The space shuttle was a boondoggle. It was probably the biggest mistake NASA made. NASA isn't stupid. So what to do?

Triple down on the mistake of course!! Meet the SLS, like the space shuttle, only much more expensive. If you wanted to design something to destroy NASA you couldn't do better. NASA tried its best to kill it by delaying, stalling, dragging its feet. Former NASA administrators openly stated it was a mistake. But congress (many prominent republicans!!) fought hard for the monster and they got it. The reason is straightforward, they wanted something expensive like the old shuttle in order to preserve jobs and pork in their districts. God America is fucked.

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1760/1

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/rocket-scientist-says-that-boeing-squelched-work-on-propellant-depots/
 

Quote

 

"Let's be very honest again," Bolden said in a 2014 interview. "We don't have a commercially available heavy lift vehicle. Falcon 9 Heavy may someday come about. It's on the drawing board right now. SLS is real. You've seen it down at Michoud. We're building the core stage. We have all the engines done, ready to be put on the test stand at Stennis... I don't see any hardware for a Falcon 9 Heavy, except that he's going to take three Falcon 9s and put them together and that becomes the Heavy. It's not that easy in rocketry."

Further Reading

NASA agrees to work with SpaceX on orbital refueling technology

SpaceX privately developed the Falcon Heavy rocket for about $500 million, and it flew its first flight in February 2018. It has now flown three successful missions. NASA has spent about $14 billion on the SLS rocket and related development costs since 2011. That rocket is not expected to fly before at least mid or late 2021.