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NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

cnn.com

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

#781

Post by inemesitaffia »

rayiner wrote: post #571
allenrb wrote: post #373

There is just so much wrong with this from start to finish. Here are a few things, by no means inclusive: 1. We’ve already beaten China to the moon by 56 years, 3 months, and some change. And counting. 2. Nothing based around SLS is remotely serious. The cost and timeline of doing anything with it are unreasonable. It is an absolute dead-end. The SpaceX Super Heavy has been more capable arguably as early as the secon…

> Nothing based around SLS is remotely serious Boeing and Lockheed will deliver on time and on budget.

How much is this budget?

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

#782

Post by vessenes »

bahmboo wrote: post #227

"The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term" - Sean Duffy NASA administrator. A scary way to set a schedule on a complex project with lives at stake. They don't care though.

You may be dismayed to learn how America got to the moon the first time around as well, then.

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

#783

Post by iamkonstantin »

allenrb wrote: post #373

There is just so much wrong with this from start to finish. Here are a few things, by no means inclusive: 1. We’ve already beaten China to the moon by 56 years, 3 months, and some change. And counting. 2. Nothing based around SLS is remotely serious. The cost and timeline of doing anything with it are unreasonable. It is an absolute dead-end. The SpaceX Super Heavy has been more capable arguably as early as the secon…

> We’ve already beaten China

I can't wait for the time when "we" is we-humans/humanity/the planet Earth and not some inter-country trade bs.

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

#784

Post by DonHopkins »

boxed wrote: post #22
Forgeties79 wrote: post #11

> Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, fired back: "SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole Moon mission. Mark my words." Still marking his words on self-driving vehicles so I guess we can add this to the list. What’s the casualty count so far on that one btw? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predictions_for_autono...

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, like the fact that Trump is on the Epstein list, then retracts them.

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

#785

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

dvrj101 wrote: post #585
teekert wrote: post #266

Why does this sounds so... Entitled? NASA regresses so far that they are now unable to do anything by themselves... Now suddenly there is a new moon race and they start pointing to a public company that is not sticking to a schedule. A company that does some impressive things, and has helped them out (probably not out of the goodness of their hearts, but hey), and is doing things they could not. I would be an adult a…

> NASA regresses so far that they are now unable to do anything by themselves they handed lots of space exploration stages to private industries, companies like spaceX got decades worth of knowledge exchange and access to nasa facilities. Somehow people with no skin in the game shout the most stupid things these days.

I think it's more fair to say that transportation from ground to orbit became commoditized to the point where the better allocation of NASA's talents became designing and building telescopes (like the JWST), Martian rovers / aircraft, Earth observation satellites, and plans for future deep space exploration missions.

It's beneficial for NASA, companies, and other countries to have cost-effective access to a range of competing American launch providers (whether SpaceX, ULA, RocketLab, and perhaps BO in the next few years).

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

#788

Post by beAbU »

zdragnar wrote: post #497
Waterluvian wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: 1. I think the America of Theseus mindset is a bit troubling. A lot of people like to identify with achievements that they played no role in. Based on zero expertise whatsoever, I have a sense that this is a bit self defeating. To be born a winner, to be taught you’re a winner… how can that be healthy? Today’s America scores zero points for its accomplishments of the past. But I think one way it can be a good thi…

America cannot possibly win the space race again, because it has already been won. The first to get there has already happened. The idea that we need to land on the moon once a generation just to say that we are as good at landing on the moon as our parents is absurd.

What's the purpose of summiting Everest if it's been done already? What's the purpose of summiting again if you personally have already done so before? We don't do these things only to be the first to do it, we do them because it's an incredible achievement, the first time, and the 100th time.

Claiming that the new mission to the moon is a waste of time because "we already won the space race" is backward. Withholding an entire generation (multiple actually) from the awe and wonder that is associated with such an endeavour just because "it's been done before" is borderline criminal imo.

And frankly, the fact that the US is struggling to get it's rocket in the air, let alone get a human on the moon, even after they did so already and literally wrote the tutorial on how to do it, is very embarrassing.

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

#789

Post by radu_floricica »

terminalshort wrote: post #215
shadowgovt wrote: post #106

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?

I think the situation here from NASAs perspective is that these were the choices: 1. Back a low risk moon mission that is basically a repeat of Apollo using proven, but extremely expensive tech that has a very low probability of failure. 2. Back a high risk strategy that relies on the development of new technology that can potentially deliver hundreds of tons of cargo to the lunar surface for a fraction of the cost o…

I'm not sure what your "obviously correct choice" here is, given the musk hate, but to me:

Option one basically lights a huge pile of money on fire, for a vanity goal.

Option two uses a much smaller pile of money to do something useful long term.

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

#790

Post by beAbU »

allenrb wrote: post #373

There is just so much wrong with this from start to finish. Here are a few things, by no means inclusive: 1. We’ve already beaten China to the moon by 56 years, 3 months, and some change. And counting. 2. Nothing based around SLS is remotely serious. The cost and timeline of doing anything with it are unreasonable. It is an absolute dead-end. The SpaceX Super Heavy has been more capable arguably as early as the secon…

Regarding 1, I honestly don't think this comment is valid, and I believe the current generation should not rest on this particular laurel too much.

A lot of things have changed in the past 56.25 years. New people, new technology, hell I'd argue that the America of the 60's is not the same America as today. For all intents and purposes this "space race" is a completely separate and new thing, where two completely separate and new countries are competing for the crown.

China winning this will only further cement the perception that America is being leapfrogged technologically and left behind.

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