From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:

I read somewhere today that Artemis was mandated by Congress to use
1970s Space Shuttle tech for some reason.

The Artemis program has always primarly been about keeping the Pork
flowing and to the "right" places for the established players in
Congress and Senate to take credit for money being spent in their
districts.

That wasn't the official reason listed of course but it wasn't like
they even tried to hide it, some where outright blatant about it.
There's a reason a number of people reads SLS as Senate Launch System
instead of Space Launch System.

The earlier Constellation program was also a Shuttle derived program
designed to keep pork flowing to the right places.

Both were always primarily works program, any hardware was incidental
(and in some cases undesirable!) and it's done well in that regard
which is why the insane money has kept on flowing despite posturing.

Being ultra expensive is a *feature* (more pork), not a bug.

Only the realization that China might beat them back to the Moon has
changed things a bit, but most involved are still firmly stuck in the works/pork mindset.

Yes, there's some vague handwaving about "reusing proven technology"
but it was always transparent bullshit.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Torbjorn Lindgren <tl@none.invalid> wrote:

The Artemis program has always primarly been about keeping the Pork
flowing and to the "right" places for the established players in
Congress and Senate to take credit for money being spent in their
districts.

That is certainly some of it.

But there's this other problem: either you do stuff in-house or you contract
it all out. If you contract everything out, then you need people in-house
who understand the technology well enough to manage the contractors.

You get those people either by doing stuff in-house yourself, or by hiring
them from contractors. Hiring from contractors is a disaster long-term
because you get the fox managing the henhouse.

So you have to do some degree of work in-house, even stuff that looks like busywork at times, in order to keep the kind of staff you need to manage
the work you contract out.

I'm not saying it's good, or elegant. In fact, it's a hell of a way to run
a railroad. But the alternatives are worse.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written



On 2/10/26 10:31, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> writes:

Torbjorn Lindgren <tl@none.invalid> schrieb:

The earlier Constellation program was also a Shuttle derived program
designed to keep pork flowing to the right places.

Not sure I'd like the idea of liquid pork; does that come from
liquid pigs?

Have you actually seen them make pork sausage? :-)

Not in person but in videos But the term Pork here refers to appropriation to finance the construction and related matters of
testing the components, etc.
In the USA Pork Barrel politics refers to the practice of
awarding contracts for whatever to the State, City, County
where the voters for the party or person to be re-elected reside.

Just another form of bribery or Grift. However it does
generally provide jobs therefore income to the residents of
the district.

bliss

bliss
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On 2/3/2026 10:59 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 3 Feb 2026 21:02:33 -0600, Jay Morris wrote:

Delayed a month. Hydrogen leak and I think a hatch problem.

Hydrogen is always going to leak.

We always said "Hydrogen wants to be Free !" at the plants.

Lynn

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