>>13402543>>13402519NASA wanted Boeing, LM, etc. to step up in this space and deliver in commercial space applications. Unfortunately, both parties have built their empire on mil-spec cost-plus contracting where the last 30 years and mutli-hundred-billion dollar gains have been derived from overpromises and underdeliveries--and where failure instead of being consequential has instead resulted in hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in rewards.
That's why NASA spent so much more time scrutinizing SpaceX over Boeing with Commercial Crew, because they assumed that the legacy and heritage of Boeing despite the cost-plus failures over the last many decades, would ultimately probably fail but not as badly--because of the seriousness of the mission. They also assumed that SpaceX was too new to the game and needed the additional oversight to not repeat another Beoing/LM.
This was both good and bad. Good in the sense that you had all the institutional knowledge of NASA on tap to assist whenever something went wrong, but it was also bad, because SpaceX developed in the open--unlike Boeing or LM which developed in the dark. Musk is genre savvy as fuck. He understands the true value of public perception of the company and product, something that NASA, ironically, still is bad at. So the added scrutiny while valuable to SpaceX internally, was detrimental to NASA externally--because when Boeing DID fail, the public perception flipped in an instant:
"SpaceX knew what it was doing all along, but NASA is run by a bunch of corrupt and incompetent old boys who wanted to control their dying empire. NASA should just get the fuck out of SpaceX's way, etc." and NASA has now paid the ultimate price. Starlink & SS/SH will make SpaceX the next NASA. NASA wanted to reach the great beyond, but with some level of control in the comm. industry. They gambled and lost, and so to not lose again, with HLS, they ACCEPTED the new reality and awarded Starship contrary to tradition.
