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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:03 · Good afternoon, spaceflight enthusiasts.
0:05 · Those of you who stay with your finger
0:08 · on the pulse of NASA budgeting may have
0:10 · heard, well, you probably heard a few
0:12 · days ago that thanks to Senator Cruz, a
0:15 · number of important aspects of the NASA
0:19 · program, that is to say, continuing
0:21 · operation of the International Space
0:23 · Station, the SLS, the lunar gateway,
0:27 · Orion, all of these things that have
0:30 · taken so much flack for being too
0:32 · expensive and outdated and therefore
0:34 · being shut down, at least after Artemis
0:37 · 3 for most of them. Well, now they've
0:40 · been saved with a considerable amount of
0:44 · money being invested in these programs
0:47 · thanks to an RDER bill that was attached
0:50 · onto the so-called big beautiful bill
0:52 · that is now a law, of course. But what
0:55 · most people don't realize is that the
0:58 · programs that Congress just spent $10
1:01 · billion to save have actually come out
1:04 · as being even less coste effective and
1:07 · more behind schedule than they were
1:10 · before according to the Government
1:12 · Accounting Office. Whereas the
1:14 · scientific programs that the government
1:16 · did cancel were on target and on budget.
1:21 · All of this and more coming at you on
1:23 · the angry astronaut right now.
1:29 · [Music]
1:32 · Good afternoon, spaceflight enthusiasts,
1:34 · and welcome to another angry bulletin.
1:37 · This is going to be brief compared to
1:40 · some of my videos simply because I'm in
1:42 · the process of recovering from a very
1:44 · nasty skin infection that actually had
1:47 · me in the hospital for the vast majority
1:50 · of the day yesterday and I need to get
1:52 · some time to recover. But at the same
1:54 · time, this is big news and I want to
1:56 · make sure that you folks are aware of
1:58 · it. So, first of all, let's talk about
2:00 · saving SLS and Lunar Gateway, that sort
2:04 · of thing. Which, by the way, for those
2:05 · of you who watch my channel, you know
2:07 · that I have argued that this is the
2:09 · thing that we have to do right now,
2:11 · given that we don't have another viable
2:14 · way of reaching the moon, at least not
2:17 · currently. Nor, in my opinion, are we
2:19 · likely to before 2030. So, let's go
2:22 · ahead and find out what the Senate did
2:24 · about this. quote, "Legacy aerospace
2:27 · giants scored a win Tuesday when the US
2:29 · Senate passed President Trump's bud
2:31 · budget reconciliation bill that earmarks
2:34 · billions more for NASA's flagship
2:36 · Artemis program. the 10 billion addition
2:39 · to the Aremis architecture, which
2:42 · includes funding for additional space
2:44 · launch system rockets and an orbiting
2:46 · station around the moon called Gateway,
2:49 · is a rebuke to critics who wish to see
2:51 · alternative technologies used instead.
2:54 · Amongst those critics are SpaceX CEO
2:57 · Elon Musk and billionaire entrepreneur
3:00 · Jared Isaacman, which both of those
3:02 · guys, as we all know, are on the outs
3:05 · right now. So, let's continue. There's
3:08 · no sign the souring relations between
3:10 · Musk and Trump are recovering. If Trump
3:12 · signs the bill, which they did, by the
3:15 · way, the fallout, which began after the
3:17 · president's abrupt abrupt revocation of
3:20 · Isacman's domination, will likely
3:22 · continue if not escalate, which it has
3:25 · because Elon appears to be starting his
3:28 · own political party. But I'm not going
3:30 · to talk about that. Let's continue
3:31 · talking about SLS. Musk in particular
3:35 · has taken aim at the space launch system
3:37 · rocket on the ground so it is fully
3:39 · expendable. Unlike SpaceX's family of
3:42 · rockets which are all designed to be
3:44 · reusable, SLS is a one-time use only.
3:48 · That means a billiondoll rocket is blown
3:51 · up every time it is launched. Even that
3:54 · may have been an understatement. That
3:56 · was Musk criticism, by the way. More
3:58 · recent figures from NASA's Watchdog put
4:01 · the recurring production cost closer to
4:03 · $2.5 billion each. A total of around $
4:07 · 24 billion has been poured into SLS
4:10 · production to date. That includes
4:13 · however development to not just
4:15 · production. This is not exactly a fair
4:18 · article in the way that it's presenting
4:20 · this. But nevertheless, this is
4:21 · Techrunch by the way who uh who is
4:24 · reporting this. But we'll continue.
4:26 · funds that have primarily gone to a
4:28 · consortium of aerospace primes including
4:30 · Boeing, L3 Harris's Aererojet rocket
4:34 · dine and Northrup Grumman which leads
4:36 · construction of the major rocket
4:38 · components. During his recent
4:40 · confirmation hearings with the Senate,
4:42 · Isaacman questioned the massive sums. He
4:44 · affirmed using SLS for the next two
4:47 · Artemis missions. In other words,
4:49 · Artemis 2 coming up at the beginning of
4:51 · next year and Aremis 3, which can't
4:54 · happen until Starship or Lunar Starship
4:57 · is ready to put humans on the surface of
4:59 · the moon. So, quite a ways in the future
5:01 · with that one, but ultimately said that
5:04 · he didn't think the rocket was quote the
5:06 · long-term way to get to and from the
5:09 · moon and to Mars with great frequency.
5:12 · Congress and Trump, if he decides to
5:14 · sign the bill into law, which he
5:16 · obviously did. So all of this is a done
5:19 · deal now have decided to press ahead.
5:22 · Around $4.1 billion of the 10 billion
5:25 · added to the document will go towards
5:28 · additional SLS rockets for Artemis
5:30 · missions four and five. And by the way,
5:34 · Artemis 1 through 3 uses the block one,
5:37 · the basic SLS. Artemis 4 and five has to
5:41 · use the block 1B which requires also an
5:45 · upgraded launch tower, meaning that all
5:48 · of that has to be completed too before
5:50 · Artemis 4 and 5 can proceed. On the
5:53 · positive side of it, the Block 1B can
5:56 · carry a lot more payload, especially
5:59 · with the exploration upper stage add-on
6:02 · to the rocket. But nevertheless, let's
6:04 · continue. Meanwhile, about $2.6 $6
6:07 · billion will go towards the completion
6:10 · of the Gateway Space Station. Now, this
6:13 · is a controversial space station. In my
6:16 · opinion, it's a good thing. It's a great
6:18 · way to keep a long-term presence around
6:21 · the moon, maintaining a watch around the
6:24 · entire moon, for one thing, enabling
6:27 · landings on the moon in many different
6:30 · locations. There's a lot of benefits to
6:31 · the gateway. I've got videos about this
6:34 · topic linked at the end of this one. if
6:36 · you're interested in checking out my
6:39 · argument on keeping gateway. So, in my
6:41 · opinion, not a bad investment there.
6:44 · Notably, the president's fiscal year
6:46 · budget request for NASA submitted in May
6:49 · proposed to phase out the space launch
6:51 · system in Orion after Artemis 3 is
6:53 · complete. Obviously, this flies in the
6:56 · face of the proposal, which was
6:57 · submitted before Musk and Trump's public
7:00 · fallout in June. The new funding also
7:03 · includes $700 million for a new Mars
7:06 · telecommunications orbiter. $1.25
7:09 · billion goes to the continual operation
7:12 · of the International Space Station and
7:15 · $325 million to SpaceX for the
7:18 · development of a spacecraft to deorbit
7:20 · the ISS at the end of the decade. So,
7:23 · the total award for that deorbit is $843
7:28 · million. Now, let me be 100% clear about
7:31 · all of this. Even though I think
7:33 · preserving SLS and Orion and the lunar
7:37 · gateway are all necessary things to
7:40 · enable mankind's return to the moon. And
7:44 · until we have a viable replacement for
7:46 · these rockets, we really shouldn't be
7:48 · cancelling them. This is all about
7:51 · preserving jobs. Keeping the SLS rocket
7:54 · production going means that the same
7:57 · people who are building space shuttles
7:59 · are going to be building SLS rockets.
8:02 · The same people who were employed in
8:05 · building rockets for the last 45 years
8:08 · in the same places in Texas and
8:11 · Louisiana and other places for that
8:13 · matter. They're all going to keep their
8:15 · jobs, which is important to people like
8:17 · Senator Cruz of Texas. And as far as the
8:20 · ISS is concerned, well, there's a lot of
8:23 · people who maintain the operations of
8:26 · that space station too in Houston. And
8:29 · those very same people are going to be
8:31 · enabling the operation of the lunar
8:33 · gateway after the demise of the ISS. So,
8:37 · it's all about keeping their jobs as
8:40 · well. So, as far as Congress is
8:42 · concerned, all of this is a job creation
8:45 · engine. It really doesn't have anything
8:48 · to do with whether or not it's a good
8:51 · idea to keep these systems. But in any
8:54 · event, as I said, it's still probably
8:57 · the best thing. But what annoys me the
8:59 · most is the fact that the recent
9:02 · Government Accountability Office report
9:05 · on Artemis shows that once again, it's
9:08 · coming in over budget and behind
9:10 · schedule. And virtually all of the media
9:13 · ignored this story except for Aviation
9:16 · Week. So, I'm going to go ahead and
9:17 · quote extensively from their article on
9:20 · the topic. Quote, "Most of NASA's major
9:23 · programs are on schedule and within 15%
9:26 · of their budgets." That's great. But the
9:29 · AY's flagship initiative to expand human
9:32 · presence into deep space under the
9:34 · Aremis program continues multi-billion
9:37 · dollar cost overruns. According to the
9:40 · US Government Accountability Office, the
9:42 · GAO determined that 14 of 18 NASA
9:46 · projects assessed were within cost and
9:49 · schedule margins during fiscal 20125,
9:52 · but four programs led by the Orion Deep
9:55 · Space Crew Capsule are over budget by a
9:58 · total of nearly $500 million. Of that,
10:02 · Orion alone accounted for more than $360
10:06 · million in cost overruns. According to
10:09 · the GAO's report, which was submitted on
10:12 · July 1st, the cost spike was primarily
10:15 · due to technical issues stemming from
10:17 · the capsule's November 16th to December
10:20 · 11th, 2022 uncrrewed flight test around
10:23 · the moon, which revealed unexpected heat
10:26 · shield erosion. That investigation
10:29 · sparked delays in the followon Aremis 2
10:31 · crude flight test, currently targeted
10:34 · for April of 2026. quote, "They really
10:38 · needed some time to figure out what
10:39 · happened after Artemis 1 in terms of the
10:42 · integrity of the heat shield and what
10:44 · the possible solutions would be." And
10:46 · that's according to William Russell,
10:48 · director of GAO contracting and national
10:51 · security acquisitions. NASA also added
10:54 · some new requirements such as docking
10:56 · capability, which further hike costs. So
10:59 · when it comes right down to it, yeah,
11:01 · it's understandable as to why Orion went
11:04 · over budget, but still it's just another
11:07 · cost increase on top of so many that
11:10 · have happened thus far. Whereas the vast
11:12 · majority of NASA's programs came in at
11:16 · budget or just slightly overbudget as we
11:19 · really want government programs to do.
11:22 · That's the kind of performance that we
11:24 · want to see. So for its latest report,
11:26 · the GAO reviewed 53 major NASA programs,
11:31 · those with an expected life cycle cost
11:33 · of more than a quarter of a billion
11:34 · dollars dating back to 2009 to assess
11:38 · NASA's historical performance. Of those,
11:41 · at least 30 were developed at or near
11:43 · their cost estimates, which the GAO
11:46 · determined to be less than 15% over
11:49 · budget. So way more than 50% of their
11:52 · programs pretty much came in at the cost
11:55 · that they were expected to come in at.
11:57 · The rest required rescoping, new budget
11:59 · baselines, and/or additional money to
12:01 · complete. Most of the budget busters
12:04 · were in the Aremis portfolio. Quote,
12:07 · "Those accounted for pretty much the
12:09 · same amount of cost increase as the rest
12:11 · of the completed projects in NASA's
12:14 · entire portfolio." unquote. That once
12:17 · again, according to Russell, the GAO
12:20 · determined that 48 nonartemis projects
12:23 · had cost overruns totaling about 8.1
12:26 · billion and five Artemis projects of 48
12:30 · versus five were overbudget by almost $7
12:34 · billion. It shows the outsized impacts
12:38 · of some of those Artemis projects and
12:40 · the level of complexity. Russell said
12:42 · the scale of the efforts are pretty big.
12:44 · So when changes come to those programs
12:46 · or delays occur, it really adds up. I
12:49 · don't care about the excuses. Artemis
12:52 · came in way over budget. A lot of NASA's
12:55 · other programs didn't. My point is the
12:58 · vast majority of those programs are now
13:00 · being cut. the programs that behaved
13:03 · fiscally responsibly. Everybody
13:06 · responsible for those, the workers,
13:08 · everybody else put in so much effort to
13:10 · bring in those projects at budget or
13:13 · perhaps slightly above. And now they're
13:16 · being rewarded by losing their damn
13:18 · jobs. And the programs that were the
13:21 · least fiscally responsible just got
13:23 · another $10 billion in funding. It sends
13:28 · entirely the wrong message to the
13:30 · government and it's no way to reduce
13:33 · spending or to increase efficiency in
13:36 · the US government. It's very very
13:39 · annoying and I'm tired of ranting about
13:42 · it and I think it's time for me to just
13:44 · get back to bed now. Thank you very much
13:47 · for watching. Please don't forget to
13:49 · like and subscribe. I think it seems
13:51 · that Sunline decided to keep the store
13:53 · open for one more day through the end of
13:55 · the weekend. So, if you want a NASA
13:58 · budget cut suck t-shirt, seems that a
14:01 · couple of people actually picked them up
14:03 · yesterday, well, you probably have today
14:05 · to get those purchased. And then we'll
14:07 · be shutting the store down tomorrow and
14:10 · I'll let you know when it's going to
14:12 · come available again. Thanks very much
14:14 · for everybody who decided to support all
14:16 · of that. So, until next time, folks, I
14:19 · urge all of you to stay angry about
14:23 · space.
14:27 · [Music]

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:03	·	Good afternoon, spaceflight enthusiasts.
0:05	·	Those of you who stay with your finger
0:08	·	on the pulse of NASA budgeting may have
0:10	·	heard, well, you probably heard a few
0:12	·	days ago that thanks to Senator Cruz, a
0:15	·	number of important aspects of the NASA
0:19	·	program, that is to say, continuing
0:21	·	operation of the International Space
0:23	·	Station, the SLS, the lunar gateway,
0:27	·	Orion, all of these things that have
0:30	·	taken so much flack for being too
0:32	·	expensive and outdated and therefore
0:34	·	being shut down, at least after Artemis
0:37	·	3 for most of them. Well, now they've
0:40	·	been saved with a considerable amount of
0:44	·	money being invested in these programs
0:47	·	thanks to an RDER bill that was attached
0:50	·	onto the so-called big beautiful bill
0:52	·	that is now a law, of course. But what
0:55	·	most people don't realize is that the
0:58	·	programs that Congress just spent $10
1:01	·	billion to save have actually come out
1:04	·	as being even less coste effective and
1:07	·	more behind schedule than they were
1:10	·	before according to the Government
1:12	·	Accounting Office. Whereas the
1:14	·	scientific programs that the government
1:16	·	did cancel were on target and on budget.
1:21	·	All of this and more coming at you on
1:23	·	the angry astronaut right now.
1:29	·	[Music]
1:32	·	Good afternoon, spaceflight enthusiasts,
1:34	·	and welcome to another angry bulletin.
1:37	·	This is going to be brief compared to
1:40	·	some of my videos simply because I'm in
1:42	·	the process of recovering from a very
1:44	·	nasty skin infection that actually had
1:47	·	me in the hospital for the vast majority
1:50	·	of the day yesterday and I need to get
1:52	·	some time to recover. But at the same
1:54	·	time, this is big news and I want to
1:56	·	make sure that you folks are aware of
1:58	·	it. So, first of all, let's talk about
2:00	·	saving SLS and Lunar Gateway, that sort
2:04	·	of thing. Which, by the way, for those
2:05	·	of you who watch my channel, you know
2:07	·	that I have argued that this is the
2:09	·	thing that we have to do right now,
2:11	·	given that we don't have another viable
2:14	·	way of reaching the moon, at least not
2:17	·	currently. Nor, in my opinion, are we
2:19	·	likely to before 2030. So, let's go
2:22	·	ahead and find out what the Senate did
2:24	·	about this. quote, "Legacy aerospace
2:27	·	giants scored a win Tuesday when the US
2:29	·	Senate passed President Trump's bud
2:31	·	budget reconciliation bill that earmarks
2:34	·	billions more for NASA's flagship
2:36	·	Artemis program. the 10 billion addition
2:39	·	to the Aremis architecture, which
2:42	·	includes funding for additional space
2:44	·	launch system rockets and an orbiting
2:46	·	station around the moon called Gateway,
2:49	·	is a rebuke to critics who wish to see
2:51	·	alternative technologies used instead.
2:54	·	Amongst those critics are SpaceX CEO
2:57	·	Elon Musk and billionaire entrepreneur
3:00	·	Jared Isaacman, which both of those
3:02	·	guys, as we all know, are on the outs
3:05	·	right now. So, let's continue. There's
3:08	·	no sign the souring relations between
3:10	·	Musk and Trump are recovering. If Trump
3:12	·	signs the bill, which they did, by the
3:15	·	way, the fallout, which began after the
3:17	·	president's abrupt abrupt revocation of
3:20	·	Isacman's domination, will likely
3:22	·	continue if not escalate, which it has
3:25	·	because Elon appears to be starting his
3:28	·	own political party. But I'm not going
3:30	·	to talk about that. Let's continue
3:31	·	talking about SLS. Musk in particular
3:35	·	has taken aim at the space launch system
3:37	·	rocket on the ground so it is fully
3:39	·	expendable. Unlike SpaceX's family of
3:42	·	rockets which are all designed to be
3:44	·	reusable, SLS is a one-time use only.
3:48	·	That means a billiondoll rocket is blown
3:51	·	up every time it is launched. Even that
3:54	·	may have been an understatement. That
3:56	·	was Musk criticism, by the way. More
3:58	·	recent figures from NASA's Watchdog put
4:01	·	the recurring production cost closer to
4:03	·	$2.5 billion each. A total of around $
4:07	·	24 billion has been poured into SLS
4:10	·	production to date. That includes
4:13	·	however development to not just
4:15	·	production. This is not exactly a fair
4:18	·	article in the way that it's presenting
4:20	·	this. But nevertheless, this is
4:21	·	Techrunch by the way who uh who is
4:24	·	reporting this. But we'll continue.
4:26	·	funds that have primarily gone to a
4:28	·	consortium of aerospace primes including
4:30	·	Boeing, L3 Harris's Aererojet rocket
4:34	·	dine and Northrup Grumman which leads
4:36	·	construction of the major rocket
4:38	·	components. During his recent
4:40	·	confirmation hearings with the Senate,
4:42	·	Isaacman questioned the massive sums. He
4:44	·	affirmed using SLS for the next two
4:47	·	Artemis missions. In other words,
4:49	·	Artemis 2 coming up at the beginning of
4:51	·	next year and Aremis 3, which can't
4:54	·	happen until Starship or Lunar Starship
4:57	·	is ready to put humans on the surface of
4:59	·	the moon. So, quite a ways in the future
5:01	·	with that one, but ultimately said that
5:04	·	he didn't think the rocket was quote the
5:06	·	long-term way to get to and from the
5:09	·	moon and to Mars with great frequency.
5:12	·	Congress and Trump, if he decides to
5:14	·	sign the bill into law, which he
5:16	·	obviously did. So all of this is a done
5:19	·	deal now have decided to press ahead.
5:22	·	Around $4.1 billion of the 10 billion
5:25	·	added to the document will go towards
5:28	·	additional SLS rockets for Artemis
5:30	·	missions four and five. And by the way,
5:34	·	Artemis 1 through 3 uses the block one,
5:37	·	the basic SLS. Artemis 4 and five has to
5:41	·	use the block 1B which requires also an
5:45	·	upgraded launch tower, meaning that all
5:48	·	of that has to be completed too before
5:50	·	Artemis 4 and 5 can proceed. On the
5:53	·	positive side of it, the Block 1B can
5:56	·	carry a lot more payload, especially
5:59	·	with the exploration upper stage add-on
6:02	·	to the rocket. But nevertheless, let's
6:04	·	continue. Meanwhile, about $2.6 $6
6:07	·	billion will go towards the completion
6:10	·	of the Gateway Space Station. Now, this
6:13	·	is a controversial space station. In my
6:16	·	opinion, it's a good thing. It's a great
6:18	·	way to keep a long-term presence around
6:21	·	the moon, maintaining a watch around the
6:24	·	entire moon, for one thing, enabling
6:27	·	landings on the moon in many different
6:30	·	locations. There's a lot of benefits to
6:31	·	the gateway. I've got videos about this
6:34	·	topic linked at the end of this one. if
6:36	·	you're interested in checking out my
6:39	·	argument on keeping gateway. So, in my
6:41	·	opinion, not a bad investment there.
6:44	·	Notably, the president's fiscal year
6:46	·	budget request for NASA submitted in May
6:49	·	proposed to phase out the space launch
6:51	·	system in Orion after Artemis 3 is
6:53	·	complete. Obviously, this flies in the
6:56	·	face of the proposal, which was
6:57	·	submitted before Musk and Trump's public
7:00	·	fallout in June. The new funding also
7:03	·	includes $700 million for a new Mars
7:06	·	telecommunications orbiter. $1.25
7:09	·	billion goes to the continual operation
7:12	·	of the International Space Station and
7:15	·	$325 million to SpaceX for the
7:18	·	development of a spacecraft to deorbit
7:20	·	the ISS at the end of the decade. So,
7:23	·	the total award for that deorbit is $843
7:28	·	million. Now, let me be 100% clear about
7:31	·	all of this. Even though I think
7:33	·	preserving SLS and Orion and the lunar
7:37	·	gateway are all necessary things to
7:40	·	enable mankind's return to the moon. And
7:44	·	until we have a viable replacement for
7:46	·	these rockets, we really shouldn't be
7:48	·	cancelling them. This is all about
7:51	·	preserving jobs. Keeping the SLS rocket
7:54	·	production going means that the same
7:57	·	people who are building space shuttles
7:59	·	are going to be building SLS rockets.
8:02	·	The same people who were employed in
8:05	·	building rockets for the last 45 years
8:08	·	in the same places in Texas and
8:11	·	Louisiana and other places for that
8:13	·	matter. They're all going to keep their
8:15	·	jobs, which is important to people like
8:17	·	Senator Cruz of Texas. And as far as the
8:20	·	ISS is concerned, well, there's a lot of
8:23	·	people who maintain the operations of
8:26	·	that space station too in Houston. And
8:29	·	those very same people are going to be
8:31	·	enabling the operation of the lunar
8:33	·	gateway after the demise of the ISS. So,
8:37	·	it's all about keeping their jobs as
8:40	·	well. So, as far as Congress is
8:42	·	concerned, all of this is a job creation
8:45	·	engine. It really doesn't have anything
8:48	·	to do with whether or not it's a good
8:51	·	idea to keep these systems. But in any
8:54	·	event, as I said, it's still probably
8:57	·	the best thing. But what annoys me the
8:59	·	most is the fact that the recent
9:02	·	Government Accountability Office report
9:05	·	on Artemis shows that once again, it's
9:08	·	coming in over budget and behind
9:10	·	schedule. And virtually all of the media
9:13	·	ignored this story except for Aviation
9:16	·	Week. So, I'm going to go ahead and
9:17	·	quote extensively from their article on
9:20	·	the topic. Quote, "Most of NASA's major
9:23	·	programs are on schedule and within 15%
9:26	·	of their budgets." That's great. But the
9:29	·	AY's flagship initiative to expand human
9:32	·	presence into deep space under the
9:34	·	Aremis program continues multi-billion
9:37	·	dollar cost overruns. According to the
9:40	·	US Government Accountability Office, the
9:42	·	GAO determined that 14 of 18 NASA
9:46	·	projects assessed were within cost and
9:49	·	schedule margins during fiscal 20125,
9:52	·	but four programs led by the Orion Deep
9:55	·	Space Crew Capsule are over budget by a
9:58	·	total of nearly $500 million. Of that,
10:02	·	Orion alone accounted for more than $360
10:06	·	million in cost overruns. According to
10:09	·	the GAO's report, which was submitted on
10:12	·	July 1st, the cost spike was primarily
10:15	·	due to technical issues stemming from
10:17	·	the capsule's November 16th to December
10:20	·	11th, 2022 uncrrewed flight test around
10:23	·	the moon, which revealed unexpected heat
10:26	·	shield erosion. That investigation
10:29	·	sparked delays in the followon Aremis 2
10:31	·	crude flight test, currently targeted
10:34	·	for April of 2026. quote, "They really
10:38	·	needed some time to figure out what
10:39	·	happened after Artemis 1 in terms of the
10:42	·	integrity of the heat shield and what
10:44	·	the possible solutions would be." And
10:46	·	that's according to William Russell,
10:48	·	director of GAO contracting and national
10:51	·	security acquisitions. NASA also added
10:54	·	some new requirements such as docking
10:56	·	capability, which further hike costs. So
10:59	·	when it comes right down to it, yeah,
11:01	·	it's understandable as to why Orion went
11:04	·	over budget, but still it's just another
11:07	·	cost increase on top of so many that
11:10	·	have happened thus far. Whereas the vast
11:12	·	majority of NASA's programs came in at
11:16	·	budget or just slightly overbudget as we
11:19	·	really want government programs to do.
11:22	·	That's the kind of performance that we
11:24	·	want to see. So for its latest report,
11:26	·	the GAO reviewed 53 major NASA programs,
11:31	·	those with an expected life cycle cost
11:33	·	of more than a quarter of a billion
11:34	·	dollars dating back to 2009 to assess
11:38	·	NASA's historical performance. Of those,
11:41	·	at least 30 were developed at or near
11:43	·	their cost estimates, which the GAO
11:46	·	determined to be less than 15% over
11:49	·	budget. So way more than 50% of their
11:52	·	programs pretty much came in at the cost
11:55	·	that they were expected to come in at.
11:57	·	The rest required rescoping, new budget
11:59	·	baselines, and/or additional money to
12:01	·	complete. Most of the budget busters
12:04	·	were in the Aremis portfolio. Quote,
12:07	·	"Those accounted for pretty much the
12:09	·	same amount of cost increase as the rest
12:11	·	of the completed projects in NASA's
12:14	·	entire portfolio." unquote. That once
12:17	·	again, according to Russell, the GAO
12:20	·	determined that 48 nonartemis projects
12:23	·	had cost overruns totaling about 8.1
12:26	·	billion and five Artemis projects of 48
12:30	·	versus five were overbudget by almost $7
12:34	·	billion. It shows the outsized impacts
12:38	·	of some of those Artemis projects and
12:40	·	the level of complexity. Russell said
12:42	·	the scale of the efforts are pretty big.
12:44	·	So when changes come to those programs
12:46	·	or delays occur, it really adds up. I
12:49	·	don't care about the excuses. Artemis
12:52	·	came in way over budget. A lot of NASA's
12:55	·	other programs didn't. My point is the
12:58	·	vast majority of those programs are now
13:00	·	being cut. the programs that behaved
13:03	·	fiscally responsibly. Everybody
13:06	·	responsible for those, the workers,
13:08	·	everybody else put in so much effort to
13:10	·	bring in those projects at budget or
13:13	·	perhaps slightly above. And now they're
13:16	·	being rewarded by losing their damn
13:18	·	jobs. And the programs that were the
13:21	·	least fiscally responsible just got
13:23	·	another $10 billion in funding. It sends
13:28	·	entirely the wrong message to the
13:30	·	government and it's no way to reduce
13:33	·	spending or to increase efficiency in
13:36	·	the US government. It's very very
13:39	·	annoying and I'm tired of ranting about
13:42	·	it and I think it's time for me to just
13:44	·	get back to bed now. Thank you very much
13:47	·	for watching. Please don't forget to
13:49	·	like and subscribe. I think it seems
13:51	·	that Sunline decided to keep the store
13:53	·	open for one more day through the end of
13:55	·	the weekend. So, if you want a NASA
13:58	·	budget cut suck t-shirt, seems that a
14:01	·	couple of people actually picked them up
14:03	·	yesterday, well, you probably have today
14:05	·	to get those purchased. And then we'll
14:07	·	be shutting the store down tomorrow and
14:10	·	I'll let you know when it's going to
14:12	·	come available again. Thanks very much
14:14	·	for everybody who decided to support all
14:16	·	of that. So, until next time, folks, I
14:19	·	urge all of you to stay angry about
14:23	·	space.
14:27	·	[Music]