successor to the Hubble Telescope is ready - the James Webb Space Telescope

[Thunderpup]

30 minutes ago, DutchTexan said:

Wow an aerospace engineer in Houston lied to me..... I always believed that to be true....

 

The whole story of the Soviet Union and the pencil and then us with the ball-point 

 

[DutchTexan]

4 minutes ago, Thunderpup said:

 

So NASA would be fucked without contractors. The more I learn about NASA the more I realize this.

[Thunderpup]

3 minutes ago, DutchTexan said:

So NASA would be fucked without contractors. The more I learn about NASA the more I realize this.

yes and no.

 

Much like any other government agency they really don't have the means to manufacture much themselves.  However there are a large number of things that exist today because of NASA.  

Some of it simply comes from NASA stating they need a product that does a certain thing and leaving it up to the company's to develop and compete.  Also there are items that are invented or developed by NASA themselves that make their way into the civilian market. 

 

Overall it is a symbiotic relationship and we benefit greatly from the different companies with their different perspectives.  

 

 

 

 

[Bensemus]

20 hours ago, zMeul said:

cheapest doesn't mean shit when their rockets explode on the fueling pad with the customer's cargo on board

Cheapest does mean shit. Pay 200 million or 60 million. Saving 140 million could fund another whole mission. Insurance covers most/all losses. SpaceX rockets are also not cheap due to cutting corners but by making almost everything themselves. Cutting out extra company's saves on the profit those companies need to make. It's one of the biggest reason NASA's rockets cost so much.

[zMeul]

3 hours ago, Bensemus said:

Cheapest does mean shit. Pay 200 million or 60 million. Saving 140 million could fund another whole mission. Insurance covers most/all losses.

that's the dumbest shit I read, yet again

 

if insurance covers all(most) losses, then why NASA chose to jend the James Webb up with ESA and not SpaceX?

there is one fucking simple reason - success to failure rate of the missions

the James Webb programme dates back to 1996 !!!!!!! and the total cost of the programme is estimated to be around 8.8 billion USD

 

send a 8.8 bil telescope into space that has been in development for 20y with a technologically unsound rocket .. what the actual fuck!?

[Bensemus]

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

if insurance covers all(most) losses, then why NASA chose to jend the James Webb up with ESA and not SpaceX?

there is one fucking simple reason - success to failure rate of the missions

So you were there for negotiations? Why does SpaceX have any customers if that's all that matters? I never said NASA should have gone with SpaceX, no one did. Everyone is just pointing out how they are not a disastrous space program.

 

With NASA's budget they can chose any rocket they want. They have used SpaceX for resupply missions and decided to use someone else to launch this satellite.

[zMeul]

16 minutes ago, Bensemus said:

With NASA's budget they can chose any rocket they want. They have used SpaceX for resupply missions and decided to use someone else to launch this satellite.

they used SpaceX for resupply because the cargo it carried is not one of the kind equipment that costs billions of USD and decades to build

when you have a letter to send, you use the postal service; when you have a valuable object to ship, you do your research and use the best service available

[Lays]

On 11/8/2016 at 6:22 AM, Curufinwe_wins said:

AWESOME NEWS!

 

The Hubble ultra deep field is imho the coolest image that has ever been captured. 

 

Can we get a 1% space/science budget?

 

 

 

ultra deep ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

 

[Bensemus]

On 11/11/2016 at 10:39 PM, zMeul said:

they used SpaceX for resupply because the cargo it carried is not one of the kind equipment that costs billions of USD and decades to build

when you have a letter to send, you use the postal service; when you have a valuable object to ship, you do your research and use the best service available

None of that mean's SpaceX is a disaster.