This is soooo far behind schedule and over budget....
That aside this article is a bit ahead of itself. Testing and flight readiness is still being done. Don’t hold your breath for lift off. Plus once residing at L2 there is NO way to service it. If anything goes wrong it’s a boat anchor
You raise an important issue. I sense the Trump Administration is going to set new standards for budgeting and scheduling in just about everything that government has a role in, including NASA. And I believe NASA and all their related partners in labs and universities are going to be happy with the new standards because it will allow for a lot more to be done faster and with fewer dollars.
Top engineers and scientists are really put off by government malfeasance and ignorance.
Werner Von Braun loved being a scientist and engineer for the federal government but that was during a time when the ranks of government scientists and engineers were at the top of the game. There are still incredibly brilliant government scientists but they have been increasingly crowded out by asinine social initiatives.
Let scientists be scientists and they will benefit everybody.
Also, America has a history of funding exploration going all the way back to Lewis and Clark. This is in the same vein of discovery and exploration.