I can believe you on that point. I know the problem with the foam heat shields, that destroyed Columbia, were due to NASA being ordered to be green.
The whole idea of a reusable craft was political.
What Spacex is doing is cool but at what cost? I strenuously object to the way they are getting funded at the expense of thousands of engineers with a proven record. Of course those engineers just tended to be conservative and from states which don’t support Obama.
Sure NASA has made mistakes, heck they still employ Hansen, but they’ve done and are doing some incredible awe inspiring things.
” I know the problem with the foam heat shields, that destroyed Columbia, were due to NASA being ordered to be green.”
Those deaths need to be laid at the doorstep of the EPA.