Comment on NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordable

Bye@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Maybe if we gave a little less to SpaceX, NASA could afford to do more.

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  • weew@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If NASA cancelled every single contact they had with SpaceX… they might be able to afford 1/3rd of an SLS launch. Or maybe not, because then they’d have to start paying Russians for rides up to the ISS.

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  • InverseParallax@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Can I ask: do you actually believe NASA builds their own rockets themselves? Like out back in their shed with a table saw and pliers?

    The prime contractor on the sls is boeing.

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    • SupraMario@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s just hate for musk, people who hate musk have blinders on and think every company he has any input into is a scam.

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      • topinambour_rex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Not a scam, but a tool to help enemies of the democracy.

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      • linearchaos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Nah, I hate musk as much as the rest of them. SpaceX is the only company he has that’s worth a damn. I was really kind of happy when he started screwing with Twitter because he has less time to screw up SpaceX.

        Now, that said, SpaceX needs competition. I will take us for musk to have one bad trip hop in there and start screwing that company over. If NASA is fully dependent on them…

        SpaceX isn’t doing anything another company can’t do. It’s just that Boeing owns our f****** government.

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      • anlumo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        To be fair, based on his companies the odds of that bet are quite good.

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    • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Boeing used to be a good engineering firm.

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      • Ddhuud@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yes, up until mid 90s

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      • anlumo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        As certified by Boeing?

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  • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    SpaceX is getting 2-3 bn dollars for Starship HLS development, most of the funding is coming from SpaceX itself. SLS costs up to 4 bn per flight. I’m not even going to mention the insane cost-overruns and years of delays associated with NASA’s cost-plus contract with Boeing to build the damn thing.

    SLS is a sunk cost fallacy.

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  • Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Even then, commercial launch providers get much further with less money. Sure, if NASA had more budget, they could afford the SLS program. But the commercial launch providers show that they could be more efficient with the money they do have.

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  • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That would destroy US space capabilities. Just because Elon is a racist dipshit doesn’t mean we should stop building the best rockets in the world.

    Honestly if we have less money to Boeing and more to spacex, NASA would be way better off.

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• vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Even considering that, the SLS is poor value for money. It’s basically a dumber space shuttle that you throw away. It’s a parody of 1970s technology.

  We can, and should, do better for that price tag.

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• mwguy@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  No, and that’s why we don’t launch then anymore.

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• AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There was no alternative to what Saturn V did at the time. The SLS program is clearly going about things in a very expensive way and we have private alternatives that may be sufficient at a fraction of the price

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• Anahkiasen@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  That was my immediate thought, it’s space exploration, it’s meant to cost more than is reasonable or affordable, because monetary rationale has never been a factor in it. Even if it did pay out in the long run with inventions and discoveries in the past, it’s never going to make budget sense because exploration and pushing our specie’s boundaries shouldn’t be. It’s a miracle what space agencies are/were able to accomplish with super strict budgets in the past, but in the end there’s only so much you can do by cutting corners and letting the private sector fill the gaps

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  • weew@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    but the SLS isn’t pushing boundaries. It’s just reusing leftover space shuttle parts and isn’t meant to do much more than what Atlas V managed. And still somehow costs billions per launch.

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