I worked as a federal government contractor for 10 years, not space-related
though. My experience was the same as Mr. Claybaugh's. If some powerful
person in the government doesn't want launches to go forward, a contractor
is not going to cross them. It takes years -- literally years -- to build
(and rebuild) trust and relationships w/ decision-makers in government
(a.k.a. the people who sign the contracts). One over-riding factor w/
government bureaucrats is they are very risk-averse. They consistently go
with the "safe" option, if there is one. They generally won't do anything
that could put their picture on the front-page of the Washington Post (in a
negative way) and cost them their career. "Biting the hand that feeds"
(i.e. launching against a bigwig's wishes) can cost millions (and in this
case, billions) of dollars in lost future contracts. Whether the government
"officially" has the power to stop a launch is very near irrelevant in a
case like this.
All of which, is a long way of saying "...and the gods help anyone who
successfully opposes such intention...".
~Thom
On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 12:24 PM, William Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
As a former government guy I must concur. If someone sufficiently senior
in government decides to stop a launch it will most likely be stopped...and
the gods help anyone who successfully opposes such intention....
That said, I must also agree with Rand's contention that the current
leadership of FAA/AST is unlikely to do such a thing w/o a very serious
reason.
Bill
