NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission • Hacker News Board

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#101

Post by brightball » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:13 PM UTC

askl wrote: post #36

boxed wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to keep two things in your mind at the same time: Elon Musk sometimes say things that are true. Elon Must sometimes say things that are not true. In this case, it's the first one.

> Elon Musk sometimes say things that are true. Has this ever happened in the last 10 years?

What questions do you have following the results of Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Neuralink, etc?

I've got a HW4 Tesla Model 3 right now and the FSD experience is so good I use it constantly...and I was one of those "I will never trust self driving cars" people for years.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#102

Post by radu_floricica » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:13 PM UTC

saubeidl wrote: post #78

radu_floricica wrote: post #54

I'm not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here, outside maybe PR and politics. Starships will drop the cost to other bodies in the same way Falcon dropped the cost to orbit. Why would anyone want to invest in a technology and a project that will be obsolete by the time it's implemented?

That is assuming Starship succeeds. Elon's track record hasn't exactly been stellar as of late.

Except it kinda was stellar? When the test pad blew up I was absolutely sure we won't be seeing a V3 this year, but they recovered amazingly, with the last V2 test checking pretty much every goal they set for it.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#103

Post by destitude » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

Considering nobody in the world can compete with SpaceX currently this seems purely political in nature. The EU is struggling to even come up with an answer to reusable rockets. China is the closest and will likely have something equivalent to the Falcon 9 within the next 2 years. But someone in the USA? People are delusional. Sure it is always best to have competitors but how did that work for Boeing/NASA/Starliner? You can't have two players/competitors if there is only one player in the entire world. And the reason why you need reusability is so that it is actually sustainable to use it! Does anyone here thinking this is a good idea have any idea how much it costs to launch SLS just once??

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#104

Post by Cthulhu_ » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

cowsandmilk wrote: post #72

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here You don't see the relevance of Artemis III launching in mid-2027 [1] or 2028 versus, say, after November 2028? [1] https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

Does anyone vote for a president based on their ability to land on the moon?

Probably; the moon landings had the US' popularity skyrocket, firmly landing them in every history book worldwide. If they lose this second space race to China it won't undo that achievement, but it'll be embarrassing to the ego-driven people at the top right now (notably Trump and Musk himself).

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#105

Post by philipwhiuk » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

madaxe_again wrote: post #15

philipwhiuk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think is capable of competing, given that they didn't win the bid the first time round?

They should just get an Apollo lander, maybe strap on some rockets from Nike Ajax missiles, buff it up a bit, maybe throw a shuttle windscreen on it too. Job done.

Too bad Orion can't get to Lunar Orbit to meet the lander.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#106

Post by shadowgovt » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

Anyone know the details of the scheduling situation here?

Is this a "SpaceX spread itself too thin and wasn't able to keep its own pre-agreed deadlines" situation or a "The government-specified contract was unrealistically aggressive / so vaguely-specified that it could not be realized within its original timetable" situation?

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#107

Post by Culonavirus » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

This is some hilarious shit to anyone even remotely interested in rocketry. Lol. Lmao even.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#108

Post by radu_floricica » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #62

radu_floricica wrote: post #54

I'm not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here, outside maybe PR and politics. Starships will drop the cost to other bodies in the same way Falcon dropped the cost to orbit. Why would anyone want to invest in a technology and a project that will be obsolete by the time it's implemented?

> not really sure if keeping a strict schedule has any real relevance here You don't see the relevance of Artemis III launching in mid-2027 [1] or 2028 versus, say, after November 2028? [1] https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

I do, which is why I specifically said:

> outside maybe PR and politics

It's still a bad idea, objectively.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#109

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

pfdietz wrote: post #89

It should be clear that the protection NASA had as a pork delivery vehicle has been breached. Witness the slaughter at JPL and, more generally, attack on research spending in general. Now that this has happened, expect a future democrat administration to have its revenge on human spaceflight centers in red states. Given the rot that has set in under that politically protected status, I can't see this as a bad thing.

> expect a future democrat administration to have its revenge on human spaceflight centers in red states

Make Puerto Rico a state and move Cape Canaveral there.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#110

Post by trenchpilgrim » Tue, Oct 21, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #45

dzonga wrote: post #29

[flagged]

> Boeing or the military industrial complex would handle these things with precision and delivered ahead of time that's fantasy. I've never heard of either entity delivering on time or on budget let alone ahead of time.

A-4? F-117? B-21?