#garver — Public Fediverse posts

#SpacePolitics
“It got funded as a #rocket to #nowhere, and we at #NASA had to figure out something to do with it,” #Garver says. Legacy contractors like #Boeing continued to receive large bonus payments 💰 for working on the #SLS, despite delays and mushrooming #costs.
Critics of the #SLS argue that the rocket is #unsustainable by #design, relying on an old and potentially quite #expensive way to get to #space. Much of SLS is a holdover from the #spaceshuttle. But while the shuttle #orbiter, #engines, and external #tanks were designed to be #reusable, SLS and its engines were not.

“They’ve designed a rocket that is basically #unsustainable, because it’s completely #throwaway. The only bit that comes back is #Orion”

“Depending on how you look at it, the #SLS is either a product of a #broken #system that curries #favor to #wealthy 💰 industries or an example of representative #democracy working as it should,” https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065143/nasa-artemis-return-to-moon

Is #Artemis based on

Introducing the #SenateLaunchSystem

"the system allowed the #aerospace #industry -- who was getting billions of dollars 💰 to build [the #SLS] -- to tell Congress they could do it by that time," #Garver said, explaining that the industry knew it'd be paid the same amount 💰 every year, #regardless of delays. "There was a #reverse incentive."

#NASA Inspector General Paul Martin : "We saw that the cost-plus contracts that NASA had been using to develop that combined #SLS and #Orion system work to the contractors' rather than NASA's #advantage." https://www.cnet.com/science/space/billions-behind-a-lunar-dream-why-nasas-artemis-i-moon-rocket-may-prove-unsustainable

#Artemis #LaunchCost #SpacePolitics

Former Deputy NASA Administrator "#Garver pushed for #substantial #change at the behest of the #Obama #administration and more investment in the #commercial #space #industry; whereas, #Bolden was more supportive of #traditional space and represented the views of many people at #NASA at the time #resistant to change. Bolden and his allies #won the battle" https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/former-nasa-official-on-trying-to-stop-sls-there-was-just-such-visible-hostility

#SpacePolitics #LaunchCost