Originally Posted by
ORAC
To be clear we are *far* from anything being settled, but based on what I'm hearing it seems at least 50-50 that NASA's Space Launch System rocket will be canceled.
Not Block 1B. Not Block 2. All of it. There are other ways to get Orion to the Moon.….
NASA has always served two purposes and one of them is the broad distribution of federal dollars to STEM-related industry in parts of the country that would otherwise be doing nothing but growing corn and raising pigs.
So whenever NASA spends money, it's already succeeding in that mission.
The idea that the purpose of NASA is to get into space as aggressively and efficiently as possible is a gross misconception. NASA exists to spend money, and the nature of the spending is aerospace technology. I honestly don't have a problem with that. The idea that NASA needs to be "efficient," or that it should be, doesn't reflect the reality of why the agency exists. The vital function that NASA serves is not space access. The vital function that it serves is funding aerospace R&D.
I would suggest moderating enthusiasm that SpaceX would replace NASA and thereby improve something. It will not and cannot.
The fact that SpaceX has achieved such success in a relatively short period of time is laudable, but they are a commercial enterprise. They have nothing in common with a government agency and there is almost nothing that SpaceX does that is what NASA does, nor is the success of either entity measured in any similar way.