Another reason to stop letting private enterprise determine the future of spaceflight.
This seems to me to be more more of a case of Hofstadter’s law. Cost-plus contracts don’t seem to have any better track record than fixed-price contracts. For example, JWST was delayed several times, and SLS was originally mandated to launch in 2016, 6 years before the actual first launch date. Starship does not meet the ambitious internal schedule of SpaceX, but the speed of development is still impressive to most other space-related projects.
NASA usually makes sane and educated decisions. But making anything depending on Elon’s BS fraud is beyond me.
SpaceX has been the most reliable Space company for years, trusting them is only logical. And the Starship is not the only Artemis launch vehicle with issues.
