[Travis McGee]

Please see 15.

I'm without a clue, scratching my head. Please try to help me understand what happened in the last half century.

For the record, the below museum artifact was 1960s tech, good enough for living human moon landings, [round trip!] engineered mainly with slide rules, and using less computing power than inside a modern $20 pocket calculator.

[marktwain]

NASA never had to worry about costs or a cost/benefit ratio.

You can engineer almost anything, given an unlimited budget.

The benefits of the space program have been tremendous.

However, it is time to commercialize space, and reap the benefits of capitalism and competition.

It would be nice to have something like the homestead bill for the solar system.

[marktwain]

What changed from 1969 to present:

The space race culminated just at the time the Media was taking over the country, and working hard to make the USA the United Socialist States of America.

They could not do this with the USA ascendant in space.

The leftist State Department was heavily involved in keeping us from using space as a military platform to keep ahead of the Russians.

The Globalists were very firm in insisting the USA be gradually reduced in power to make a world government possible.

The red on the inside, green on the outside enviromentalists worked hard to reduce/disable/demonize technological advancement.

The Chinese, a little late to the game, have been working overtime to "capture the elite" to make sure the ruling class in the USA see what needs to be done to advance Chinese power. They are well paid for their efforts in support of China.

The policy decisions in support of the above agendas have been accumulating for decades.

[adorno]

Please try to help me understand what happened in the last half century.

Democrats happened.

Like with the military spending (democrats never liked spending on the military), space spending was considered wasteful and needless, when, according to democrats, there were more pressing needs, like spending on social programs.

It took Trump to recommit to spending on space exploration, and in creation of "Space Force".

There was always research and development for rockets and space vehicles and satellites and space probes, but not as a commitment for going back to space and the moon. Many people, democrats and republicans alike, felt that, spending on manned space missions was unnecessary since, many of those missions could be unmanned, like flights around Mars and Mars Landers, and missions to the outer planets with probes that just swing by,taking photos and using instruments to measure the environments on and around those planets and moons. With the kind of thinking of the last 50+ years, we might never see fruitful missions again, at least not in our lifetimes.

[Hodar]

Apollo used Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen (LOx). NASA is horribly corrupted by politics. Global warming and all that crap

SLS and Shuttle used LOx and Liquid Hydrogen are the liquid fuels now. They burn and make water vapor; but far less energy per pound. And at around -490° F, they bring along all kinds of cryogenic “issues”.

[CodeToad]

Liberal grifting and corruption including the grifting of “Diversity”.

[Paul R.]

I’ve walked underneath that baby. Damn impressive.

Now...

Launch aborts due to FL weather this time of year are a given. SpaceX recently had a Falcon 9 aborted 4 times B4 they got it off.

A few new problems with a rehashed old system would not be surprising either. Liquid hydrogen IS tricky stuff to keep sealed up. But, this, given the cost overruns, and it is OLD tech, is getting ridiculous.

FedGov in 2022 has no idea how to do anything without it costing 5-10x what it should. Most state gov’s not much better.