DDE Posted Tuesday at 04:56 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 04:56 PM On 1/30/2025 at 2:29 AM, Minmus Taster said: This is a personal gripe but I'm becoming very worried (and frustrated) that our leading spaceflight related group is lead by... Y'know. Cliquish politics presided over by an authoritarian visionary worked for the Soviet program - for some time. Until Korolev died. Elon is more likely to just lose interest, especially if the Iron Dome gets... domed. How's Neuralink and Hyperloop doing? Or maybe those affordable ventilators that a lot of people could still use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted Tuesday at 05:40 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:40 PM (edited) WT F does ^^^ that have to do with Boeing or Starliner, exactly? SLS is a crappy program (Boeing runs the core stage part and EUS) partially because of Boeing, and partially because the entire design is garbage. Starliner is in trouble entirely because of mismanagement by Boeing. I mean, it's their vehicle, they took the fixed price contract at almost 2X the SpaceX bid for the same services, have provided ZERO missions, and have already lost money. Not sure how the program can be seen as anything but an epic fail, even if I want it to succeed (I do). The other commercial providers are behind because they are not as good as SpaceX, it's not more complicated than that. I long to see a capable competitor. ULA can launch stuff reliably, which is great, but they can't do cost competition, it's a competence they lack. Nothing related to current politics changes the math WRT SpaceX. They already effectively own the launch market. It's in the US interest to have multiple providers, so we will continue to see inferior contractors rewarded with contracts just to keep them afloat, regardless. Edited Tuesday at 05:42 PM by tater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted Thursday at 11:44 AM Share Posted Thursday at 11:44 AM On 2/4/2025 at 8:40 PM, tater said: It's in the US interest to have multiple providers, so we will continue to see inferior contractors rewarded with contracts just to keep them afloat, regardless. Given the events of the last month and the disproportionate political influence of one of the competing entities? I would assume nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuke Posted Thursday at 12:19 PM Share Posted Thursday at 12:19 PM with musk holding a defacto government position, i have a feeling shotwell is handling all the spacex stuff. why this belongs in the starliner thread, idk. obligatory: did the door fall off. just to make this post relevant to thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted Thursday at 02:16 PM Share Posted Thursday at 02:16 PM 2 hours ago, DDE said: Given the events of the last month and the disproportionate political influence of one of the competing entities? I would assume nothing. Don’t think so. 2+ providers is still in DOS’s interest for launch services, and NASA is no different. SpaceX is only where it is because of relative competence. The sausage still gets made the same way, Money comes from Congress, and reconciliation is how anything gets moved that doesn’t have bipartisan support, and only 1 per year. Seems unlikely. ObStarliner: Boeing already has their fixed price contract, it’s for them to back out of it or not, anyway, nothing the gov can do, though NASA could make them refly the last mission which might force them to cut their losses. If they have to refly, vs jumping through some hoops with NASA to move on will be what to watch for I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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