
New White House Budget Spells Trouble for Nasa’s SLS Rocket - rbanffy
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/nasas-new-budget-raises-questions-about-the-future-of-its-sls-rocket/
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samcday
The article goes over a bunch of things, but IMO the most interesting
paragraph is buried at the end:

> "As chairman of the appropriations committee, I have more than a passing
> interest in what NASA does. And I have a little parochial interest, too, in
> what they do in Huntsville, Alabama," where Marshall is located, Sen. Shelby
> said. "Jody, you keep doing what you're doing. We'll keep funding you."

Senate Appropriations Committee chairman is in NASA's corner, so that's
something of a relief.

Out of curiosity though, can someone walk me through why it would be a big
deal if the worst case scenario were to happen and NASA's entire new
generation of launch vehicles were scrapped?

Wouldn't that just create a massive opportunity and subsequent land-grab in
the commercial space to fill the vacuum? SpaceX has proven it can be done.
Other commercial entities are nipping at SpaceX's heels.

Especially if SpaceX starts successfully launching crewed missions this year,
won't that prove that you can have a company that is significantly leaner and
more efficient that can also produce vehicles containing tons of very
explosive chemicals safe enough for humans to hitch a ride on?

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javagram
This article is weird. It admits in the first paragraph that the president’s
budget request is typically ignored by the Congress and then goes on anyway.

My understanding is presidential budgets are pretty much meaningless and have
been for over a decade. Congress ignores them and does its own thing.

SLS is also known as the “senate launch system” and isn’t going anywhere.

