>>13036802This is it. This is the quote that explains everything and highlights just how insane our timeline is.
Blue can't believe this happened because this was supposed to be *impossible*.
There was no way NASA would abandon SLS
There was no way NASA would abandon Orion
There was no way NASA would take a risk
There was no way NASA would take the political hit
There was no way NASA would hurt the established players this way
Blue Origin's entire HLS bid was predicated on these self-evident axioms. ...Except they weren't true. In reality the NASA that was a completely subservient extension of Congress and the defense giants had changed.
NASA had grown frustrated with SLS and Orion.
NASA had was sick of being overruled by politicians.
NASA had watched their goals be hamstrung and delayed for too long.
NASA was sick of being used as an ATM by Boeing and the other giants
Blue played the game well, but it turned out that they were playing the wrong game. The NASA they tried to appeal to no longer existed. The new NASA had been changed by commercial crew, and was hungry. Blue Origin had forgotten what NASA actually was: a collection of scientists and engineers who desperately wanted to learn, chart, and explore the universe. SpaceX showed them a potential path to their dreams. BO did not.
NASA didn't have a choice in 2010 when their Saturn V 2.0 proposal was thrown away and they were shackled to the ball-and-chain that was SLS/Orion. But they did have a choice this time. And they took it.
