Space Exploration

Are NASA's future missions and budget justified?

  • It's worth the time and expenditures

    Votes: 223 66.0%

  • Complete waste of money

    Votes: 41 12.1%

  • We need to explore, but not at the current cost

    Votes: 74 21.9%
  • Total voters
    338
#4,001
#4,001
I am much more concerned about what the payloads are that these commercial entities
are launching. Sending Captain Kirk up for a few hours does not pay the bills.
 
#4,002
#4,002
Hunerwadel said:
I hope you're not correct. I'm very happy to see so many private commercial entities competing for space projects. It's a win win for space science and technology.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda surprised none of the "big boys" have tried to acquire/contract Bigelow Aerospace and get them back into production. The technology has been shown to work (the BEAM is still going strong on the ISS and will remain berthed until 2028) and the production for the larger modules is sitting unused in Nevada along with the majority of the workforce after being laid off last year for Covid.

You'd think mature and proven tech that could be brought up to speed quickly wouldn't be sitting around gathering dust like that. With commercial space really starting to get going, the next logical step is an orbital platform for commercial and tourist applications. I'd dare say you'd have plenty of foreign entities like India, the UAE and possibly even the European Space Agency or JAXA that would/could "rent" the space for less than the ISS rates and charter a Dragon flight to get them there. Provided there are only two entities (SpaceX and Roscosmos) capable of orbiting people at the moment, that number could rise in the near future if Sierra Space, Blue Origin, Lockheed and <chuckle> Boeing get into gear. Or any number of private space tourism companies with stars in their eyes (no pun intended).

Yeah, it'll be expensive in the beginning, but over time and more companies getting involved will hammer down the price.
 
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#4,003
#4,003
A good, albeit long, blog post that for most here is probably preaching to the choir.

Starship is Still Not Understood

In my mind it kind of drives home the point that, even if Nelson is not actively working against SpaceX, there is an opportunity cost for not embracing Starship.
 
#4,006
#4,006
Hopefully getting close to releasing Starlink here..I noticed tonight I can order accessories...
Not sure if that option was always there or not 20211029_201742.jpg
 
#4,007
#4,007
CagleMtnVol said:
👀

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So... already taken $4.2 billion in the original contract and they're spending over a half a billion fixing the problems with the craft. And that's mighty generous of them to "shoulder" the costs of fixing what's wrong considering they can't get another dime out of the government for it.

You'd tend to think they were a brand new spaceflight company rather than one who's been in the game 60 years...

One thing I'll give Obama's NASA credit for was making sure that was a fixed price contract on the Commercial Crew when it went out. Because in normal times, Boeing would have been ****ing the government for even more money than the $500m extra spent.
 
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#4,010
#4,010
Grand Vol said:
So... already taken $4.2 billion in the original contract and they're spending over a half a billion fixing the problems with the craft. And that's mighty generous of them to "shoulder" the costs of fixing what's wrong considering they can't get another dime out of the government for it.

You'd tend to think they were a brand new spaceflight company rather than one who's been in the game 60 years...

One thing I'll give Obama's NASA credit for was making sure that was a fixed price contract on the Commercial Crew when it went out. Because in normal times, Boeing would have been ****ing the government for even more money than the $500m extra spent.
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Never-mind the fact that Boeing is only developing the spacecraft. The rocket itself is already developed and is tried and true (Atlas V), and, even despite this, it's still encountering all these issues and delays.

SpaceX on the other hand had to build the 1st stage booster, 2nd stage, and spacecraft all on their own essentially from scratch. Oh, and implemented re-usability as well.
 
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#4,011
#4,011
Matt2496 said:
Never-mind the fact that Boeing is only developing the spacecraft. The rocket itself is already developed and is tried and true (Atlas V), and, even despite this, it's still encountering all these issues and delays.

SpaceX on the other hand had to build the 1st stage booster, 2nd stage, and spacecraft all on their own essentially from scratch. Oh, and implemented re-usability as well.
Click to expand...

Well, kinda...

SpaceX was already in the process of developing the Falcon 9 for the Commercial Cargo missions, so, one might assume the whole budget they got for Crew Dragon was spent on designing that portion. I'm not saying the Commercial Crew program didn't help along those lines, but reusability was already planned around the Falcon 9.

Regardless, SpaceX got about half the budget Boeing did and will already have three crewed NASA missions under their belt before Boeing even gets their second test flight into orbit. Maybe even four launched missions since Crew 4 is scheduled to liftoff in April.
 
#4,012
#4,012
Grand Vol said:
Well, kinda...

SpaceX was already in the process of developing the Falcon 9 for the Commercial Cargo missions, so, one might assume the whole budget they got for Crew Dragon was spent on designing that portion. I'm not saying the Commercial Crew program didn't help along those lines, but reusability was already planned around the Falcon 9.

Regardless, SpaceX got about half the budget Boeing did and will already have three crewed NASA missions under their belt before Boeing even gets their second test flight into orbit. Maybe even four launched missions since Crew 4 is scheduled to liftoff in April.
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Boeing's track record would suggest their strength is in redesign.
 
#4,013
#4,013
Hunerwadel said:
Boeing's track record would suggest their strength is in redesign.
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Boeing seems to have the company line of over promising, over charging, under delivering, underwhelming and certainly behind schedule.

What's crazy is the way Blue Origin is following the Boeing model. They are seriously behind schedule and overpricing their products. The main difference is their lack of government contracts.
 
#4,014
#4,014
Grand Vol said:
Boeing seems to have the company line of over promising, over charging, under delivering, underwhelming and certainly behind schedule.

What's crazy is the way Blue Origin is following the Boeing model. They are seriously behind schedule and overpricing their products. The main difference is their lack of government contracts.
Click to expand...
The government needs to start including retainage. Hold 10% of the budget until successful competition of the contract.

With boeing I would make it 20%
 
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