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Blue Origin rocket, owned by Jeff Bezos, explodes during test in Florida | Blue Origin
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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Here's an idea: instead of private corporations sucking $20B a year on bad engineering, why not directly use that money for a not for profit federal agency?
We could call it the National Aeronautic Space Administration for Launches. Or, NASAL.
NASA just made a rocket - the Space Launch System. It was ridiculously more expensive than SpaceX's rocket. And the Space Shuttle before that was also very expensive and suboptimal.
I am not a private sector fundamentalist (fuck privatized healthcare), but rocket launches is one area where the private sector has proven better than the public sector.
The thing is. SLS is ludicrously more expensive then Space X rocket because congress basically strong armed NASA into re-using shuttle hardware to keep jobs. And SLS can put about 100t, twice as much payload to orbit compared to Falcon Heavy.
Shuttle was supposed to be a lot more reusable, with a reusable 1st stage, as well as the shuttle we know. But, post Apolo budget cut (and quite frankly technological limitations of 1970s), killed the design. NASA had to compromise further to keep the program going, by offering to allow the air force to use a shuttle for satellite capture (which it never did). And skipping technical details, it made the shuttle even less reusable, and also gave it it's iconic look with the wing in the rears.
I forgot my point so take the info dump for free
If I may extract one point: it got expensive because of politics, and that's mostly why politics should stay out of these kinds of developments. That should be true of either publicly or privately funded ventures.
My sweet summer child, where do you think NASA actually gets its rockets from? You think they build them themselves? You think there were federal employees bending metal and turning wrenches at the space shuttle factory?
The difference is design and oversight. With a NASA vehicle, the government is in charge of the design process and construction, although these tasks are mostly done by outside companies on government contracts. With a company like SpaceX or Blue Origin, the design and testing and operation is done by the company who then sells launch contracts to NASA.
If you think the government can do better, I encourage you to take a look at SLS.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/six-years-after-orions-first-spaceflight-america-still-waits-for-an-encore/ This is a few years old but it's very relevant. As of 2020, NASA had spent more on the Orion vehicle and one flight than SpaceX had spent cumulatively on all space activities combined (including falcon, dragon, Merlin, starlink, and the beginnings of starship)
believe me, I am all for public space. The problem is Congress fucking sucks. And also NASA can't afford as much as said private corporations
We have that already: NASA's Space Launch System.
It's ... debatable whether it gives better results than commercial contracts.
But how are we gonna make any money on that? What about all the red tape??
hashtag think of the billionaires