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NASA is about to make its most important safety decision in nearly a generation (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 280 points 2 years ago (53 children)

Step 1. Fire Boeing.

Step 2. Fucking FUND NASA.

Step 3. NASA builds space stuff that works.

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  • [–] [S] 96 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    To be fair, some work has always been outsourced.

    Like the o rings…

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago

    I’ve worked for several aerospace companies including Boeing. I have nothing but contempt and hatred for Boeing and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Management is garbage, safety comes second to schedule, people are treated like disposable cogs, but I would trust Boeing over NASA. I work with a lot of NASA and ex-NASA people right now on a couple major projects. Dear god NASA upper management makes me want to put my head through a wall! The insufferable sense of superiority trying to tell us “how things are done”. Bro, how is SLS coming? That’s what I thought, shut your mouth and stop pretending like you are the Apple of space systems. Luckily, most of the ground level people at NASA are more down to earth (pardon the puns) and easier to work with.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (36 children)

    NASA contracting stuff to space X has probably be the most amazing and sound financial decision they have made.

    People on this website are so biased because Elon runs it but he genuinely built one of the most amazing companies in the world. Government including the US are miles behind them and struggling to play catch up and they are only trying because Space X has become so much better than them they have to.

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  • [–] 67 points 2 years ago (25 children)

    It's arguably not even him that it really running it

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Seems like he's more involved with starship now than falcon or dragon.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Which is why my expectations have lowered. "Hey can we build a rocket out of steel and power it with natural gas?" "We'd have to give engineers a raise or they'll probably quit."

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'd hope they're paying them more, since they're working very long hours. But I do think starship is likely to do well, they've crossed some huge barriers to cheap reusability.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    At what point does cheapness outweigh reliability? It was good to keep wasteful and incompetent military contractors on their toes, but that's going to have diminishing returns, eventually.

    Elon's vision is spaceflight cheap enough for extremely wealthy consumers to frequent, any further in that direction and SpaceX maybe might no longer benefit the general public.

    We'll see.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    People on this website are so biased because Elon runs it but he genuinely built one of the most amazing companies in the world

    Elon didn't build it. They literally have a manager whose entire job is to make sure Elon doesn't get too close to the technical stuff because he'll break it with some random order to change it for no reason

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    I read quite a bit about how spacex was formed, including the book that obviously will tell the hero tales of Elon. But I've never seen any mention of this and would like to learn more. Would you be able to share a link?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    It’s not just blind hate for Elon, they’re genuinely terrible stewards of the environment in south Texas. They constantly lie about their intentions and impact to avoid having to take responsibility for anything. Say what you will about how independently they operate from his input, this is definitely a company culture that he cultivates and promotes.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago

    https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1823378186836889699

    CNBC updated its story yesterday with additional factually inaccurate information.

    While there may be a typo in one table of the initial TCEQ's public version of the permit application, the rest of the application and the lab reports clearly states that levels of Mercury found in non-stormwater discharge associated with the water deluge system are well below state and federal water quality criteria (of no higher than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity), and are, in most instances, non-detectable.

    The initial application was updated within 30 days to correct the typo and TCEQ is updating the application to reflect the correction.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    The news story you are linking was incorrect and based on a typo in a report.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    So I’ve read.  

    They still blew up their launch pad and showered a protected wildlife area with particulate, metal, and concrete debris. 

    They then built and operated their water deluge system without obtaining permits.

    Typo or no, they’re still taking a fast and loose, “better to ask forgiveness than permission” approach that is a detriment to a protected natural environment. They intend to test the limits of the Texas government’s ability to show disdain for the environment in favor of private enterprise.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago

    Those are valid points. The people that actually know even small amounts about the company do have interesting insights.

    But I wasn't talking about those people. I was talking about people that see the name Elon and immediately "know" the company is in a shambles, failing and can't keep up with the competition and all other sorts of nonsense based on no facts.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Step 4. NASA builds planes that work (on the side).

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    If BASA build aircraft they would have to throw it all away at the end of the flight.

    Need better funding but they absolutely shouldn't be building spacecraft, they are too scared of getting yelled at to innovate, and innovation is required.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Their idea of building a new rocket is by reusing as much of the 1970's shuttle tech as they can.

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