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SLS is still a national disgrace

Casey Handmer · 2 Oct 2024

A change of mind in this piece

NASA can still be reorganised into an agency that exploits cheap heavy lift, and the next administrator will decide whether it is.

No longer holdsAt the time I was optimistic, now I am not.

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5 korrents from this piece · 1 of them a turn ↓

Casey Handmer did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    NASA's Space Launch System has consumed more than a hundred billion dollars and delivered almost nothing.

    Their wordsFour years on, the program has consumed another $20b with nothing to show for it.

  2. Our reading

    An organisation that compromises its technical integrity on its flagship programme loses the ability to keep it anywhere else.

    Their wordsThis is symptomatic of an agency who, compromising their technical integrity on their flagship program, subsequently lost the ability to maintain technical integrity anywhere else.

  3. Our reading

    NASA's flagship programmes eat the budget of the robotic science missions that actually make the discoveries.

    Their wordsSLS, like JWST before it, eats everything in its path, meanwhile NASA hasn’t sent a single mission to Venus since 1989.

  4. Our reading

    NASA can still be reorganised into an agency that exploits cheap heavy lift, and the next administrator will decide whether it is.

    No longer holdsAt the time I was optimistic, now I am not.
    Their words nowThis obviously has not occurred.

  5. Our reading

    Without SpaceX, neither the United States nor Europe would have adequate access to space of its own.

    Their wordsBut for SpaceX, both the US and Europe would lack adequate strategic access to space.

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