Comment by kokanee
4 days ago
> the agency said it was confident that a change to the re-entry trajectory would be more than adequate to offset any spalling issues. Somewhat confusingly, they also announced their intention to switch to a new heat shield design, starting with Artemis III.
It's fine to be concerned, but this kind of take is why public agencies are damned no matter what they do. In the private sector, operating with the suboptimal resources you have while working on a better iteration is standard practice, even in industrial settings. But when you're a public organization, if anyone can find anything that is less than 100% optimal, the same people who complain about how slow the public sector is will complain that you're cutting corners, or that you're inept.
In the private sector, risking astronaut’s lives when you know a problem exists can result in jail time - what will happen to NASA?
1. The entire mission is “risking astronaut’s lives”.
2. NASA employees don’t have criminal immunity.
Who went to jail for the STS deaths?
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