Let’s send Matt Damon again! He blasted off from Mars in a rocket ship covered with a tarp, and he would’t be missed.
I imagine there are a few countries, and maybe some private groups along with SpaceX that would love to put their hardware on the flight.
Red Dragon is a terrible name. Sounds like a ChiCom spaceship.
Fire him. No one’s life is at risk, and we don’t need the government to do everything in space. You can’t develop private expertise in space if NASA keeps taking all the marbles and going home.
I was looking at the proposed specs for the SpaceX ITS launch vehicle. My goodness: It has roughly, depending on configuration, 2-1/2 to 3x the payload of the Saturn 5, or even the final iteration of the SLS that NASA is working on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITS_launch_vehicle
I sure would like to be on hand for a launch!
If SpaceX can prove out their “Raptor” engine (they seem to be well on the way with the “reuseable booster” technology), and be remotely in the “ballpark” Musk projects for costs... would Trump be inclined to cut a deal?