[AR] Re: New administration, good luck to them !

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2016 15:04:25 -0500 (EST)

On Wed, 9 Nov 2016, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:

Pork is fungible. Many working on SLS are no doubt emotionally invested in that particular rocket. Senator Shelby on the other hand, as long as the lights stay on and parking lots full in Huntsville, may not worry so much if in four years the object of the funding has transitioned to something other than SLS.

Also, to be really cynical, aborting an old project and starting a new one has the advantage that nobody will ever know whether the old project would have been an embarrassing failure. (Like, say, an awkwardly big and very expensive rocket that quickly runs out of funded customers -- that being what happened last time.)

Of course, now you have the same worry about the new project, but the Big Day Of Reckoning has been postponed -- perhaps to after your honorable retirement. Especially if the new project is a broad technology program that might have multiple end products and ill-defined performance targets, as opposed to a rocket that either flies or doesn't.

Henry

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