Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you noticed that most critics aren't complaining about all of NASA, but mainly about SLS/Orion? On reddit, what usually happens is that SLS defenders try to misrepresent attacks on SLS as an attack on all of NASA, parenthood, and apple pie. And so the world turns.
"NASA is a jobs agency." is pretty clear.
Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
201–210 of 259 posts
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#202Anyone has insight into what BO's problems are? I heard that they had leadership problems but otherwise a top notch staff. People love to flame Jeff Bezos but if you look at his management of Amazon, I wouldn't dismiss him casually with regard to BO. He might not have the engineering chops of Musk but I'm sure he can put the right leadership in place to turn this ship around, now that he'll be focusing on this full t…
Brad Stone's newest book about Amazon goes into it. In short, Bezos hired leadership poorly. Those hires led to a culture akin to a legacy rocket company like ULA. You know the meme about devs going to Google to rest and vest? That's the reputation Blue Origin has in the space industry according to Stone.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#203Maybe BO will one day actually do something noteworthy on their own, rather than trying to prevent SpaceX from moving ahead because they actually do things. Bezos also recently tried to block Starlink's modified expansion plans[1] saying it was unfair to his conceptual Project Kuiper (conceptual because it doesn't yet physically exist vs Starlink which is in beta service and expanding). Amazon isn't even using BO to…
> Maybe BO will one day actually do something noteworthy on their own, rather than trying to prevent SpaceX from moving ahead because they actually do things. You don't consider being the first to successfully launch and land a VTOL booster noteworthy [1]? [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/the-f...
It’s “what have you done lately?”
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We're not colonizing that either. That might largely be explained by the fact that doing so would be illegal as per international law to begin with.
It isn't like anybody is going to really stop you from living there. There are multiple land disputes over Antarctica and nobody has given a shit about those. Plus all the research stations which provide permanent habitat if someone wanted to keep shipping in supplies. You expect if you built a greenhouse or power generation source for indoor gardening that some government would spend the effort to send in troops or…
Well, if you are a US citizen, it is illegal to do that in Antarctica without a permit from the NSF (under the Antarctic Conservation Act). If you do it anyway, expect to be prosecuted, and the US will send agents to arrest you, even if you are in Antarctica. The FBI has made an arrest in Antarctica before (due to a fight at McMurdo Station).
All state parties to the Antarctic Treaty have similar laws, which (generally speaking) apply to their nationals worldwide.
If you were a sole citizen of a country which is not a party to the Antarctic Treaty – such as, Andorra or Afghanistan or Costa Rica or Cyprus or Ireland or Malta or Nigeria or Uzbekistan – then you'd have somewhat more chance of getting away with it. But surely your act would cause an international incident and they'd look at ways of shutting you down – the country of which you are citizen might suddenly decide to sign the Treaty as well, and shut you down. If the country of citizenship lacks the resources to shut you down, it may give permission to another country which does have those resources (e.g the US) to act against you on its behalf.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first soft landing on the moon occurred in 1966. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9 Many rockets did soft landing on earth before that point, but none of them had been in space.
Sure, if that probe's rather crude landing system is enough for you, suit yourself with Luna 9. However, the LM landed on its legs in one piece, just like DC-X, New Shepard, Grasshopper, and F9 first stage did later.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Congress would be dumb to pick a new horse now. You're not optimizing for the same outcomes as Congress. NASA is a jobs agency.
A 'jobs agency' that has produced a whole lot of technical advancements, maybe.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#207Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
So nasa wants to go, they're driving the innovation. > SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the GAO decision on Twitter with a flexed-biceps emoji. This sounds like billionaires and their egos fighting with each other. Not really trying to make the world better
>So nasa wants to go, they're driving the innovation. You said going to the Moon isn't innovation. You can't have it both ways.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
"NASA is a jobs agency." is pretty clear.
... it's pretty clear that the person who said that is unaware of the full scope of NASA's programs. But that's not the person you replied to. You replied to someone specifically criticizing SLS.
There's a logical train here, that I think you're attempting to work around.
1. Nasa is a jobs program 2. A jobs program that produces good tech? 3. Yeah, but what did SLS produce? 4. You know that SLS is not NASA (is what I should have said). But I actually said was close enough.
3 makes zero sense unless the poster believes NASA ~= SLS.
I find it fun that we're saying the same thing (NASA != SLS), yet here we are arguing.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#210It's really a shame what has happened to Blue Origin. They've gone from a promising space startup to yet another purveyor of perpetual vaporware. Where is the BE-4 engine? Delayed, again and again. New Glenn, the rocket that could actually go into orbit? Same. So far their only functioning hardware (New Shephard) is, in effect, a glorified amusement park ride. Considering that SpaceX has actually made it to orbit mul…
Forget orbit, SpaceX has paid for it's ISS contract about 3x in savings over Soyuz. Congress would be dumb to pick a new horse now.