[ExI] What happens to US space programs after November?

[Giulio Prisco]

Perhaps canceling the SLS before the first practical demonstration
that SpaceX is able to take human astronauts to the ISS and back,
cheaper than other options, would be seen as too risky?
Of course Trump himself wants only bread and circuses. All politicians
are like that. But at least Trump's bread and circuses empower NASA
and SpaceX &co to build a space program that achieves its goals. No?

On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 9:43 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> Right, but what about the past 3 years?
>
> If Trump is reelected, I doubt he would cancel SLS despite having an ambitious space program.  It takes a realistic space program to do that, one that actually tries to accomplish its goals instead of being bread and circuses - and realism is not one of Trump's strong suits.
>
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 12:32 AM Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> I guess that, IF Trump is re-elected and IF his administration is
>> really in favor of ambitious space programs, sooner or later they will
>> be forced to realize that the SLS is far too expensive compared to
>> emerging commercial alternatives. But canceling the SLS and switching
>> Artemis to commercial launch/cargo providers would require major
>> political actions and backstage negotiations. It doesn't make sense
>> for the current administration to do that before November.
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 9:20 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 12:13 AM Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Of course I agree that the SLS should be canceled and the money used
>> >> to buy launch and cargo services from Musk &co. But that would be a
>> >> political decision that only an administration with an ambitious space
>> >> program would make. Otherwise, better let large legacy companies and
>> >> their politicians continue to profit from the status quo.
>> >
>> >
>> > Whatever else can (and should) be said about Trump, he is in favor of ambitious space programs.  And yet, SLS does not look like it will be defunded this side of November.
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