On Dec 16, 1:12*pm, "Greg \(Strider\) Moore"
wrote:
"Matt Wiser" *wrote in message

...



When political reality collides with idealism, guess who wins? As
things stand right now, SLS and Orion have the politics behind them.
Musk doesn't. Simple as that. When he starts flying people and
bringing them back safely, then he'll get the accolades that will be
richly deserved. Until then, he's an amateur. At least Burt Rutan put
someone into a sub-orbital flight. Until Musk goes further with a
crewed demo flight (or two, or three)...he hasn't earned the trust
that NASA has earned the past 50 years. Like the Commercial Space
Federation said at their symposium last year: "Stop talking and Start
Flying."

Let's see. *How many flights has Falcon 9 had? *2.
How many has SLS had? 0.

When's the next Falcon 9 flight scheduled? *Next Feb.

When is SLS scheduled? "Err, sometime in the future."

I'd say Musk is flying and NASA is talking.



--
Greg D. Moore * President * * * * * * * * * Green Mountain Softwarehttp://www.greenms.com
Help honor our WWII Veterans:http://www.honorflight.org/
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

For now. When Musk flies people and returns them safely as part of his
flight test program, then you can say that he has a capability that he
can offer paying customers. Until then.....

Congress has more confidence in NASA than it does Musk. Why do you
think they fully funded SLS and Orion and gave the Commercial Crew
side only 45% of the funds requested-and $100 Mil of that is held up
until NASA ID's the destinations BEO that they intend to fly to. Not
"study" or "workshop presentations. Actually come out and say where
NASA is going to fly exploration missions. And personally, I'm more
comfortable with an established firm like Boeing or Orbital Science
handling the crew side than I am Space X. Those firms have been around
the block and know what they're doing. As Capt. Gene Cernan said in
Congressional testimony regarding the startups: "They don't know what
they don't know." Translation: they will learn things the hard way,
just as NASA did back in the early days.