They'll do this now and then act shocked when some of these ex nasa people end up working in Europe or China lol
don't they all sign a document saying it's all classified tech?
4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
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Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#682But haven't people wanted NASA to be more streamlined, and efficient? Not sure if that is reducing staffing, or changing its mission. SpaceX making such leaps and bounds over NASA had to be a shot across the bow.
NASA is handicaped by politics. SLS is a jobs program, nothing else. Did they axe that shit or they kept it even after funding was cut?
NASA would have wanted to get rid of SLS itself (but probably stay some of the subordinated parts) because there's a good reason why it's nicknamed "Senate Launch System"
Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#683Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#684Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#685Earlier quoted context omitted.
NASA and SpaceX aren't competitors. NASA's mission statement is "explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery". SpaceX is a p̶u̶b̶l̶i̶c̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶d̶e̶d̶ privately held company whose mission is to increase shareholder value.
SpaceX’s mission is very explicitly not shareholder aligned, which is why Musk explicitly said he would never take it public or sell his majority stake. The mission is mars and the money making endeavors (starlink) are to bring in the cash to do that.
Even if he were sincere, sacrificing NASA because it's mission has some overlap with the stated goal of a billionaire is ridiculous.
Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#686They'll do this now and then act shocked when some of these ex nasa people end up working in Europe or China lol
don't they all sign a document saying it's all classified tech?
Not necessarily. Not all the work for the government is classified, and over classification is technically, which means it still happens and is mostly ignored, against the law.
And having worked on some classified systems doesn't preclude employment in related fields. It does restrict what you can share, of course.
Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#687They'll do this now and then act shocked when some of these ex nasa people end up working in Europe or China lol
That doesn't sound legal.
There is worse going on in other areas, for example "China Recruiting Former R.A.F. Pilots to Train Its Army Pilots, U.K. Says"
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63293582
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/world/europe/china-recrui...
https://asiatimes.com/2024/12/what-uk-fighter-pilots-did-and...
And finally, the official response: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/former-armed-forces-perso...
It comes down to money and private interests dominating Western politics. It has bad but also good sides. Human conflict used to be about extermination a few thousand years ago, that is what I think of when I read such headlines, such things can actually also be seen as progress. We now have priorities other than our tribe or nation, that has good sides too. I like the Napoleonic war story where Napoleon gave a medal to a British scientist, Humphry Davy.
While bad for the nation, I try to see it as a mixed bag that people from the top down are... flexible.
The price we pay is, possibly, worse outcomes in conflicts. What we gain is that after conflicts end we get back to normal life - with one another - very quickly and relatively easily.
Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#688Earlier quoted context omitted.
>SpaceX making such leaps and bounds over NASA had to be a shot across the bow. SpaceX, which has been awarded tens of billions in government contracts from NASA, is making leaps and bounds over NASA? I think in 2022 almost 50% of SpaceX revenue was NASA contracts. All those leaps and bounds over NASA are literally NASA funded.
Not to speak for the other commenter, but there's a perception that private industry (SpaceX specifically) has been more agile in getting some things done than NASA had been; specifically, getting a purpose-built ISS taxi (the Dragon) built, tested, and launched. In some ways, this isn't wrong. It's easier to get a private company to do that than to get NASA to do it, because there's not some congresscritter from Ala…
>specifically, getting a purpose-built ISS taxi (the Dragon) built, tested, and launched.
I still don't understand this. NASA funded the development of dragon and a few other companies through their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS 1 and 2) contracts. It's right in the name, Commercial Resupply. NASA isn't building anything in these contracts, just defining requirements and overseeing execution and spending.
>In some ways, this isn't wrong. It's easier to get a private company to do that than to get NASA to do it
But this is wrong. NASA came up with requirements and awarded money to multiple companies (which is how high-risk contacting works -- hedging development by funding multiple companies), one of the companies they funded has been pretty successful, some of them unsuccessful, some are still in development.
The whole argument and perception that NASA and Spacex are somehow competitors just makes no sense to me. It's like saying something like, "The US Navy needed a new frigate and funded the development of it from HII and NASSCO. HII made an amazing new frigate, and NASSCO failed. OMG HII is so amazing why don't we just pay them to be the US Navy?"
Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#689They'll do this now and then act shocked when some of these ex nasa people end up working in Europe or China lol
don't they all sign a document saying it's all classified tech?
Sure there are probably NDAs to keep specific tech from moving, but that doesn't mean the talent that invented the tech can't move.
Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program
#690For obvious reasons, the people who are most able to find a good gig elsewhere are the most likely to elect to go do so; and they tend to be the people that you'll miss more.
True, but it can also be those that dislike the job the most, and they tend to be the people that you'll miss less.