Commercial Crew - Discussion Thread 2

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/timfernholz/status/1178044118389399555

Update from Bridenstine spokesperson: No further comment is expected explaining the NASA administrator’s tweet about today’s Starship presentation or what specifically he would like to see SpaceX do to hurry commercial crew.

[TrevorMonty]

Apart from the generally classless phrasing of the statement it’s also telling that SpaceX is further ahead on commercial crew than Boeing but only SpaceX was tagged in the tweet. If Bridenstine was aiming it at all space contractors, he should have tagged them.

SpaceX has at least sent a Crew Dragon test article to the ISS.

I completely agree with his statement though.  When the last time SpaceX made any mention of Crew Dragon?  I know when a part time employee who cleans the bathrooms is hired at Boca Chica before I know any progress on Crew Dragon.

SpaceX mentions Crew Dragon progress regularly; it doesn't mention it as often as Elon tweets about Starship because it's not progressing as fast. Commercial Crew has a lot more factors acting to slow it down than Starship, and that's reflected in the number of announcements we get.

At present Starship its a big SS flying water tank thats not going to be carrying any precious cargo in near future. When Starship needs to fly passengers, then progress will slow.

[dglow]

The pushback against and removal of propulsive landing eliminated Crew Dragon as a component of SpaceX's Mars and moon plans. Did this also diminish some aspect of 'enthusiasm'? Yes, probably.

With Red Dragon off the table, SpaceX accelerated alternatives. One of these is standing 50m tall and reflecting the Texas sky.

[marsbase]

The pushback against and removal of propulsive landing eliminated Crew Dragon as a component of SpaceX's Mars and moon plans. Did this also diminish some aspect of 'enthusiasm'? Yes, probably.

With Red Dragon off the table, SpaceX accelerated alternatives. One of these is standing 50m tall and reflecting the Texas sky.

This is exactly what I was thinking.  If NASA rewarded "enthusiasm" there would be no SLS.

[DigitalMan]

Starhopper at least was built by a water tower company.  If NASA wanted those resources contributing to Crew Dragon I don't see how it would have been approved by NASA acceptance personnel.

Unclear what could be done to improve Crew Dragon engineering or schedule.

[docmordrid]

>
Unclear what could be done to improve Crew Dragon engineering or schedule.

Act on the NASA IG's implied suggestion that certain congress-critters (and surrogates) should stop interfering with vehicle decisions?

Ars Technica...

NASA's Inspector General has apparently had enough of meddling by Congress

On Tuesday, NASA Inspector General Paul Martin wrote a rather extraordinary letter to the US senators who determine the budget for the space agency. In effect, the independent NASA official asked Congress to kindly not meddle in decisions that concern actual rocket science.
>

[thirtyone]

Apart from the generally classless phrasing of the statement it’s also telling that SpaceX is further ahead on commercial crew than Boeing but only SpaceX was tagged in the tweet. If Bridenstine was aiming it at all space contractors, he should have tagged them.

SpaceX has at least sent a Crew Dragon test article to the ISS.

I completely agree with his statement though.  When the last time SpaceX made any mention of Crew Dragon?  I know when a part time employee who cleans the bathrooms is hired at Boca Chica before I know any progress on Crew Dragon.

I think the bias comes from the interest on forums like NSF, and Elon's personal enthusiasm. It would certainly feels that way as well, and I understand. But I've been actively keeping up with official releases and I actually think may be more official PR on crew dragon than there is on Starship (from NASA and SpaceX directly).

[thirtyone]

Friendly reminder that Congress cut commercial crew funding by more than 50% for the first 5 years!  ($500M became $230M, $800M became $400M etc.) Meanwhile, SLS/Orion requests of $3-4B got $100M's added by Congress.  Not all schedule slips should be created equal.

https://twitter.com/Lori_Garver/status/1178001517753835521

Lori is wrong on that...

edit: previous totals didn't include FY 2018...now do

Where do those numbers come from? I totally believe you, btw, just interested in knowing where I can find these numbers myself for future reference. Would also be useful to break down spending between Boeing and SpaceX (just curious if the original 2:1 cost ratio still applies after all the changes). Would I be correct to think that payment is made entirely by milestones, so there is very little wiggle room in the final amount paid, provided both contractors succeed? (So not cost plus in any way whatsoever)

[I14R10]

This really feels like NASA is jealous of SpaceX for getting most of the attention these days.

[OTV Booster]

https://twitter.com/jimbridenstine/status/1177711106300747777

My statement on @SpaceX's announcement tomorrow:
“I am looking forward to the SpaceX announcement tomorrow. In the meantime, Commercial Crew is years behind schedule. NASA expects to see the same level of enthusiasm focused on the investments of the American taxpayer. It’s time to deliver.”

That's just.... wow. Really?

Why in the world would you piss all over SpaceX's monumental achievement?  This could be the inflection point in history where space travel becomes more routine and accessible to the masses.  If history bears this out, Jim will have an ignominious black mark on his name and tenure as NASA administrator.

Stay classy Jim.

Bsides mostly venting, we are veering into space policy, but here goes anyhow.

SX in the process of kicking the historically necessary props out from under government sponsored space flight. Over he next several decades NASA will probably become as relevant as the Federal Rural Electrification Commission or what ever it’s called.

NASA (and Alabama) are scared.

Phil

[HeartofGold2030]

There’s a lot of laughable bias and assumptions floating around this thread, the cold light of reality will soon set in dispelling fantastical delusions.

[OTV Booster]

By that metric so has Boeing. Why was SpaceX thrown under the bus?

Because Boeing isn't promising to build the greatest rocket ever when they've still yet to launch a single crewed vehicle

Some jobs go no faster or at best only slightly faster even with massive resources thrown at them. I would be very surprised if the pad anomaly didn’t draw resources that would have otherwise gone to SS. I would be equally surprised if things would have gone much faster with a doubling of the resource available to crew dragon since the inception of hopper.

Phil

[DigitalMan]

This really feels like NASA is jealous of SpaceX for getting most of the attention these days.

If that's how they feel now, how are they going to feel when the Starship human missions begin?

[Chris Bergin]

This thread is in pain. Time to put it out of its misery. We'll start a new one on Sunday.