[nascarnation]

I wonder how much continuity there is in organizations like this. Do “lessons learned” have to be re-learned decades later?

[NorthMountain]

There should have been continuity from STS to SLS ... in fact, continuity is one of the reasons they're using shuttle components in SLS. Supposedly. There's a lot of bureaucratic and congressional meddling in the SLS design. I see two reasons the system is AFU. 1) Congress getting too involved in the design. 2) Diversity, Inclusion, Equity.

As an engineer, I really want to see the system work ... too many good people have put too much work into it ... OTOH, it really is a mess ... a worse mess than the STS ... and needs to be scrapped/replaced ASAP. And NASA should publish performance specs and let industry design and build the thing. Sort of like they did with the 1960s space program.

Maybe then it would actually work.

Back when this fiasco got started, they had a team study the old F-1 engine and design a new "F-1B" engine that would have had better performance, while being compatible with the US industrial base ca 2013. Congress nixed it in favor of reusing Shuttle stuff. ARGGH!