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Bewaretheicespiders t1_itlkmon wrote

This is "Ballast" Nelson's NASA. Use a failing, obsolete but slow to die program to send as much taxpayer money to his friends in old space before it fails for good. Awful, terrible nomination as NASA's Administrator.

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-The_Blazer- t1_itlu8q7 wrote

Isn't it more the senate's fault? I read somewhere that there's a single senator who threatened to filibuster all of NASA's budget if they worked on orbital refueling programs, because those would have made the SLS, which is based in his state, unnecessary.

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Bewaretheicespiders t1_itlvvku wrote

Shelby, former chairman of Nasa's senate appropriation commitee. Im glad he's no longer in charge, but sad that so little has changed. NASA needs an administrator that can push against congress for the good of Nasa and its goals. Not an administrator that is a 80 yo former senator and was part of the problem in Congress (like Nelson).

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Delta4o t1_itn9c3p wrote

It's a giant job creation scam/extortion. They all want jobs (or contracts) for the amount of taxpayer money their state provides. It adds a ton of overhead and bureaucracy to get anything off of the ground (pun not intended).

The moment a space program is canceled it threatens jobs. They'll redirect that into other political decisions and eventually, you'll get space shuttle program version 3.4.216, the "almost to orbit" program.

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UnevenHeathen t1_iu6e8q9 wrote

and you would suggest giving it to Musk? Hahaha.

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Bewaretheicespiders t1_iu6tpv8 wrote

Absolutely not, what waste it would be. Musk is a fantastic engineer and an absolute disaster of a diplomat, that would be a huge waste.

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UnevenHeathen t1_iu6uzgw wrote

Musk isn't an engineer.

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