Well not quite. This missile comes from politics. NASA doesn’t really want it. They would rather do more unmanned and use commercial operators.

The problem is that NASA has to answer the Senate. The head of NASA works directly with the president, but the money comes from Congress and the Senate. They submit an application budget each year asking for XX amount for project YY and so on. In particular, research missions, things like “what should we do on Mars” and unmanned missions. Each time they are allocated more than they ask for, but with the caveat that this money must be used in SLS. So senators know better than the experts

The reason the space shuttle parts had to be reused was more employment in the factories that made those parts than the price. Let them be “accidentally” in the states from which the senators on the Space Committee came. They are blatantly misusing NASA for their political ends. Also called “Senate Launch System”

And now the worst senator (Richard Shelby) will retire next year. Hopefully that will lead to some change.

We sometimes complain about our complex coalition system, but in America the state-oriented electoral system and the two-party system have taken the entire political system hostage to business interests. Everyone is just trying to bring each other down for their own benefit instead of working together for the national interest. The grass is definitely not greener there.

[Reactie gewijzigd door GekkePrutser op 23 oktober 2021 13:47]