Even as a triumphant moon flyby primes agency for a 2028 landing, Trump’s proposed budget cuts cast pall on US space program
Even as Integrity, the mission moniker for the Orion capsule of Artemis II, ascended into the heavens days ago, Donald Trump was announcing his intention to slash NASA’s budget by 23%, including a 46% cut for space science initiatives.
And the Artemis program that has run years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget offers no guarantees that the next, far harder stages will run as smoothly.
I agree, fuck Elon Musk. Care to elaborate on the second part? Cause from what I know about SpaceX, they’ve been doing things never thought possible with their rockets and are helping progress space exploration significantly.
He makes a lot of promises and gets a ton of government funding and pumps up his stocks. For example; the catchable booster is cool but it was not invented by him and his promises of giving boosters a turnaround of 24hrs or something is wildly absurd. Also, the Starship HLS has been delayed repeatedly and it was promised to carry thousands of pounds into space when it has repeatedly exploded while carrying no weight. These are just a couple of things and despite the failures, he continually wriggles out of consequences whilst pumping up stocks with bullshit.
If you want painfully nuanced analysis and critique of SpaceX, check out @commonsenseskeptic on YT. You can also check out thunderf00t who is more controversial due to a reactionary past.
He’s ambitious for sure, but people were also saying landing boosters wasn’t feasible and a waste of time. Now not only is it possible, but it’s routine, and now it allows them to put up more mass than every other agency combined. I’m also curious to know who’s catching boosters like Super Heavy.
The entire space industry is full of delays and over promises, that’s not unique to SpaceX. What is unique to SpaceX is their approach to design which is to test cheap and often in order to develop a refined end result. I’m not sure why the payload part is relevant. Starship is still a prototype, so of course they’re not using a payload.
SpaceX isn’t publicly traded yet, so not sure why you’re mentioning stocks. Also not sure what consequences you’re expecting since it’s a private company.