I love how they tried to blame it on Boeing awhile back...
The real problem is people got used to Unlimited Federal Cash. And got good a vacuuming it up. With no real threat to the US uniting the myriad of cultures, no focus, and no one demanding accountability or value for their tax dollar, this was a natural result.
> Is budget estimation just some figleaf used at NASA to push the favored mission over the selection line, and then another set of books is used to actually build and run the mission?
Yes? When in the history of modern American aerospace funding has NASA actually gotten the money they ask for, in the timeframe they asked for it?
The problem with NASA is making it political. I agree it's a national disgrace, but the disgrace lives in Congress, not Cape Canaveral.
The reality is that every single industry that has to beg congress for funding has to do this, or they claim to have to do this, because if you don't play pork barrel politics with the budget for your program, it will be first in line to be axed by the next admin for a dumb political ad about how that administration "reduces waste".
How many programs has NASA been told "yes, do this", and then a few years down the road have their funding cut out from under them? They have to completely rebuild their projects, plans, and goals for the future pretty much every other year, as whether they are even considered a thing worth funding is partisan. One party explicitly considers them part of a global conspiracy against our economy!
Consider during COVID, and now the Ukraine war. The US struggles to ramp up capacity because every American exec is too risk averse to invest in new factories that aren't absolutely garanteed by law to pay off in the current decade. Political games have made it impossible to fund anything for longer than 4 years.
Related post by Eric Berger:
The politically incorrect guide to saving NASA’s floundering Artemis Program https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/10/heres-how-to-revive-na...
I love how they tried to blame it on Boeing awhile back...
The real problem is people got used to Unlimited Federal Cash. And got good a vacuuming it up. With no real threat to the US uniting the myriad of cultures, no focus, and no one demanding accountability or value for their tax dollar, this was a natural result.
> Is budget estimation just some figleaf used at NASA to push the favored mission over the selection line, and then another set of books is used to actually build and run the mission?
Yes? When in the history of modern American aerospace funding has NASA actually gotten the money they ask for, in the timeframe they asked for it?
The problem with NASA is making it political. I agree it's a national disgrace, but the disgrace lives in Congress, not Cape Canaveral.
The reality is that every single industry that has to beg congress for funding has to do this, or they claim to have to do this, because if you don't play pork barrel politics with the budget for your program, it will be first in line to be axed by the next admin for a dumb political ad about how that administration "reduces waste".
How many programs has NASA been told "yes, do this", and then a few years down the road have their funding cut out from under them? They have to completely rebuild their projects, plans, and goals for the future pretty much every other year, as whether they are even considered a thing worth funding is partisan. One party explicitly considers them part of a global conspiracy against our economy!
Consider during COVID, and now the Ukraine war. The US struggles to ramp up capacity because every American exec is too risk averse to invest in new factories that aren't absolutely garanteed by law to pay off in the current decade. Political games have made it impossible to fund anything for longer than 4 years.