Even as a triumphant moon flyby primes agency for a 2028 landing, Trump’s proposed budget cuts cast pall on US space program
Even as Integrity, the mission moniker for the Orion capsule of Artemis II, ascended into the heavens days ago, Donald Trump was announcing his intention to slash NASA’s budget by 23%, including a 46% cut for space science initiatives.
And the Artemis program that has run years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget offers no guarantees that the next, far harder stages will run as smoothly.
If it’s good and hopeful trump will be against it.
So does anyone else remember when trump said they would have a moon base? Like the whole going back to the moon thing was kinda his thing?
The world was looking at other space programs, but no usa needed to moon it, and now never mind space…
Genuine question: Is artemis II a “Fuck You” to Elon Musk bc his shitty rockets cannot get out of orbit with 0 payload while the government builds one and sends it around the moon with people? Did Musk and the govt collaborate or what?
The Artemis program (more specifically the Space Launch System) is kickbacks for senators in the form of a spaceship that uses components manufactured in every congressional district at a massively inflated cost. It has been in the making since before SpaceX launched their first rocket, facing massive cost overruns (more corruption) and delays (more corruption).
Considering this has been many, many years in the making, I don’t get how you could come to the conclusion that this was a “fuck you” to SpaceX. And calling Starship a shitty rocket just further shows you’re a little biased in your assessment of the situation.
Yes, I am biased. Fuck Elon Musk and his shitty-rocket-embezzlement-scheme SpaceX.
I agree, fuck Elon Musk. Care to elaborate on the second part? Cause from what I know about SpaceX, they’ve been doing things never thought possible with their rockets and are helping progress space exploration significantly.
He makes a lot of promises and gets a ton of government funding and pumps up his stocks. For example; the catchable booster is cool but it was not invented by him and his promises of giving boosters a turnaround of 24hrs or something is wildly absurd. Also, the Starship HLS has been delayed repeatedly and it was promised to carry thousands of pounds into space when it has repeatedly exploded while carrying no weight. These are just a couple of things and despite the failures, he continually wriggles out of consequences whilst pumping up stocks with bullshit.
If you want painfully nuanced analysis and critique of SpaceX, check out @commonsenseskeptic on YT. You can also check out thunderf00t who is more controversial due to a reactionary past.
He’s ambitious for sure, but people were also saying landing boosters wasn’t feasible and a waste of time. Now not only is it possible, but it’s routine, and now it allows them to put up more mass than every other agency combined. I’m also curious to know who’s catching boosters like Super Heavy.
The entire space industry is full of delays and over promises, that’s not unique to SpaceX. What is unique to SpaceX is their approach to design which is to test cheap and often in order to develop a refined end result. I’m not sure why the payload part is relevant. Starship is still a prototype, so of course they’re not using a payload.
SpaceX isn’t publicly traded yet, so not sure why you’re mentioning stocks. Also not sure what consequences you’re expecting since it’s a private company.
For real. A single person should not have enough money for their own goddamn space program. It’s ludicrous.
SpaceX isn’t the first company to be making rockets. Who do you think has been making NASA’s rockets? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not NASA.
And Elon started SpaceX way before me was the richest person in the world. You can hate Elon Musk. I’d even agree with your hate there. But to direct it at SpaceX and accuse them as just being a money-making-scheme for Elon is a little ridiculous.
One of the criticisms of the Artemis program is that NASA’s SLS rocket is Titantically, catastrophically expensive compared to SpaceX rockets. Or compared to the Saturn IV rocket. Compared to just about everything.
Artemis III is supposed to involve a commercially-made moon lander, probably from SpaceX. Artemis IV is supposed to build a space station in lunar orbit, on the back of about a zillion SpaceX rocket launches.
I don’t know everything, but I don’t think NASA’s in any position to tell Elon Musk off.
Grain of salt: Most of what I think I know about Artemis is from a very long, very detailed, very critical and persuasive blog post by someone who isn’t even an engineer as far as I know.
It’s hardly a fuck you to Musk since the Artemis program depends on SpaceX and the next mission is going to use a SpaceX rocket according to current NASA plans.
Yeah, SpaceX had nothing to do with Artemis II specifically, but that’s because SpaceX is responsible for the Moon landing, not for the flyby, in the Artemis plans.
They have already started looking at other landers because SpaceX hasn’t produced anything for the landing yet.
