Around 83 percent of NASA’s facilities are beyond their design lifetimes, and the agency has a $3.3 billion backlog in maintenance.
Having just submitted an article about a commercial spacewalk, I’m depressed that space is destined to be owned by corporations. This won’t get funded. Politicians will point to how much more efficient private companies do this. Eff.
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I’ve got a love-hate relationship with private space companies.
Love:
- More and cheaper access to space is ultimately a good thing (gotta get to the Star Trek future somehow)
- What SpaceX has done with reusable boosters is game changing. I hate Musk, but I try to not think about him when I think of SpaceX
Hate:
- It’s more “socializing the cost, privatizing the profits” where much of their funding came or continues to come from government grants/contracts. It’s almost the same model as the pharmaceutical industry.
- It’s a billionaire’s game, and we’re all being exploited to fund it (beyond tax dollars at least partially funding them).
As far as NASA facilities getting their funding: Remember that SLS exists and is made entirely out of pork. So at least those facilities will continue to get funding because they’re essentially jobs programs for a handful of states.
