Nasa chief fired as Trump administration vents frustration over moon landing delays

[GMDino]

(07-17-2019, 01:02 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Meanwhile the rocket's cost has ballooned 30%, and is 4 years behind schedule, and yet they are still giving Boeing 10s of millions of dollars in award fees according to your own quote. You're trying to make this a Trump thing, and this reads very much like the system had gotten a little too comfortable in bloated spending and delayed schedules, and desperately needed a shake up.

Same way that the US Government was spending around $400m per rocket launch for satellites. Everyone was comfortable with that for years, no innovation was needed. Why innovate when there's such a fat payday to cash? Then SpaceX comes in and offers the same service for anywhere between $80-100m, shaking up the industry.

Do you refuse to get rid of the people with "experience" who are charging $400m and continue to vastly overpay them because that's the way it has been done, or do you search for the better, cheaper, and quicker alternative to do things? 

I'm sure there is a balance in there somewhere.  But even the guy who let him go said it was a shame.   Yes you have to watch costs.  Absolutely.  But you also can't keep changing the goal and demanding things be done "faster" without these kinds of things happening.  And when it comes to strapping some humans to a giant rocket and firing them into space I'd rather they go over budget and get it right than cut a few corners and have people die.