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Comment by tw04

4 days ago

Take note of a project that’s about 15 years behind schedule and many multiples over budget finally progressed because we lowered safety standards to just launch?

I’m not sure how that’s proof the government isn’t gutted. Let me know what our schedule is for the next one and how that timeline has changed. Ignoring the projects that have been outright canceled…

You’re currently the guy saying “ya, all you haters that said I’d lose my house if I stopped paying my mortgage, who’s laughing now?” - one month into not paying your mortgage.

We’ll still be dealing with the after effects of doge 20 years from now.

24 comments

tw04

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JumpCrisscross  4 days ago

> we lowered safety standards to just launch

Aren’t they still well above anything in the history of human space flight?

We keep treating these systems in popular discourse as airliners. They’re not. They’re experimental craft. With mass production maybe SpaceX can bring launch closer to general aviation. But the notion that any loss of life is intolerable is (a) unsustainably expensive and (b) not a view shared by the lives actually at risk.

  • NetMageSCW  4 days ago

    They aren’t in the same magnitude as F9 and Dragon to ISS, so no. I question if they are as safe as the shuttle (final computed risk 1:90).

    • JumpCrisscross  4 days ago

      > aren’t in the same magnitude as F9 and Dragon to ISS, so no

      Fair enough. For a heat-shield discussion I guess we should talk about higher-energy missions. But conceded. LEO has normalized safe space travel.

kowbell  4 days ago

If it's 15 years behind budget and many multiples over budget, it wouldn't be DOGE's fault then?

  • dmix  4 days ago

    The main critique of the handling of heat shields also happened at NASA in 2022-2024 and the project continued on. Artemis is largely a product of congress.

ActorNightly  4 days ago

Remember when DOGE tried to cut out the inefficiencies and failed miserably? The "inefficiencies" and "bloated budgets" are there for a reason.

If Elon ran this project "without bloat", there is probably a 70% chance that the vehicle would have exploded, much in the way of his Starship and early Falcon vehicles.

  • NetMageSCW  4 days ago

    But that explosion would have cost one tenth the cost a single SLS launch and the next one would go a little further. And eventually you would be flying the most reliable rocket in history more frequently than any other rocket for one tenth the cost of the competition.

    • ActorNightly  3 days ago

      This works for getting things to LEO. This doesn't scale well as the distance increases. You can't keep launching shit to the moon, crashing it over and over, until you get it right.

transcriptase  4 days ago

Indeed. The GSA with 10k employees is going to fall apart without the 40k unused winzip licences DOGE so cruelly took away from them in their senseless spree of madness.

  • permalac  4 days ago

    That logic is very short term and while comical isn't close to reality.

    I hope you live a long and prosper life so you can see the consequences of this presidential term fully unfold.

partiallypro  4 days ago

Don't confuse bureaucracy with "gutted." The federal government is bigger than at most any point in US history. Arguably that fact is -why- it's 15 years behind schedule.