• NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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    11 days ago

    What does the privatization of space flight, and it’s subsequent technical failures resulting in a 2-week expedition turning into a 10-month expedition have to do with capitalism? Is that a serious question?

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago
      1. So a non-capitalist space program would have no technical issues ever? Sounds about as sound as most communist propaganda logic.
      2. If you actually read the article, they are staying there to continue the science until replacement crew arrives. The capsule is ready and they are able to return any time. There wasn’t another technical failure.
          • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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            10 days ago

            I bet they would had the Obama administration not moved to privatize spaceflight -Did you miss the part I said about capitalism and privatized space flight in an earlier comment?

            • Morphit @feddit.uk
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              10 days ago

              Ah yes, the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle. NASA’s plan was to put the Orion spacecraft on top of a Space Shuttle SRB. The projected development costs were $40 billion in 2009 and it was anticipated to cost about $1 billion per flight beyond that. Despite continued development, to this day, Orion still hasn’t flown a crew. An SRB was what killed the 7 crew aboard the Challenger.

              This was a pretty dumb idea, driven primarily by wanting to keep funding going to the same districts as in the Shuttle era. No one misses that system.

              Thinking that wasn’t capitalism is ridiculous - NASA designed the system and gave aerospace contractors (read - Boeing) a blank cheque to build it. The contractors of course used that money to lobby congress to spend even more money. Did you miss that part?

        • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          How many commercial technical failures and logistical failures is adequate for you?

          Maybe fewer or equal than there were with government run NASA? Starliner turned out to be a safe spacecraft that was recalled due to abundance of caution. Which leaders at NASA were far more comfortable doing, since it reflects badly on Boing instead of them (which is a good thing).

          On the other hand, while NASA run the launches itself, how many astronauts died in disasters?

          You are seriously going to pretend one issue is somehow a failure of privatized spaceflight? A nonfatal issue that caused two astronauts to chill on the space station for longer than expected, most of it voluntarily?

          • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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            11 days ago

            Nuance isn’t allowed here on lemmy. You will hate capitalism or you will be silenced. You will hate privatization, or you will be ostracized.