Ah man, NASA was pretty much the last thing cool thing about America.
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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SpaceX was always a space scam. Now it's the only scam.
How is SpaceX a scam? Falcon 9 is the best rocket in the world at this time.
Is this a semantics argument? Like you're arguing over the proper use of "scam"? or do you not see how the word scam could be implied in this context?
I ask because I was about to present a big thing with links and timelines showing how this has all played out since the early 2000's, but I'm not gonna go to all the trouble if you're just upset that a better word should be used besides "scam" since there is some sort of measurable output being performed.
(I still think scam is apt when you start breaking down the terminology though, it's still fraudulent practices which have been performed for the companies benefit, i.e. funding away from NASA)
When's the next 50501?
Every weekend for the foreseeable future. A big event planned for April 19.
(I know you surely knew all this, I’m just playing the part, for the benefit of the audience.)
If you're interested in space it's better to shift your gaze towards the ESA and CNSA. NASA isn't long for this world.
Man, I just wanted to see humans on the moon in my life. NASA seemed like the best bet because they’re the only agency from the space race, with the recorded experience of doing long terms Spaceflight, still doing innovative things. Roscosmos hasn’t done much new since the soviets fell apart, even though we now know they had some wacky plans for things like Tri-propellant shuttles, and Energia was an amazing heavy lift vehicle that is basically just scrap metal at this point.
I thought Elon would be the reason we didn’t go to the moon because of starship being vaporware. Turns out Elon is the reason we’re not going to moon because he wants to cover up that starship is vaporware.
Shuttering NASA is a net loss not just for the USA but for the entire species. Everything from battery powered power tools, Velcro, the glass on our phones, the little safety grooves on highway off ramps, and a thousand other advancements not even including going to fucking space, can be traced back to NASA pushing human Spaceflight to its limit. Every dollar spent on Apollo generated something like 3 dollars in growth for the US economy because of all of the R&D that companies had to throw at the problem.
I only hope that either the ESA or CNSA can actually put humans on the moon. It was insane 50 years ago and it’s insane even today, but I still think that Armstrong’s first step onto the moon should go down as one of the most important moments in human history, the first time a human left earth and put his foot down on a different celestial body is just as important as the harnessing of fire or electricity. It should be the first step of many, not just a brief footnote that marks we were there.
The extra stupid thing is that they'll probably won't save anything in the next 4 years anyways with how long timelines are for space planning. They'll just waste an incredible amount of investment. This is just such petty and cruel retaliation against anything related to climate science.
They just enjoy smashing stuff others value for no reason.
Pressuring aerospace industry. Endless corruption & greed.
Oh right... Elon gets rid of all the competition and space startups that rely on NASA outsourcing their rockets, while he maintains his contracts they go bankrupt. Holy shit.
Yep, I do not understand how people cannot see how obvious this corruption and wealth theft is
I work on one of these telescopes. Got the news today thay they're trying to close Goddard, and the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, and basically all Earth observing satellite work. It would completely upend our ability to predict 7 day weather, extreme weather events like hurricanes, and make science basically inaccessible from space. I'm surprised they aren't moving the funding over to SpaceX entirely.
That's the whole point of SpaceX. Why have a space program when we can funnel endless money to a grifter?
It’s fucking heartbreaking to see, as an astronomy and astrophysics enthusiast.
At the same time, I hope that the loss in weather prediction capabilities leads to catastrophic damage to Mar a Lago and as many other of his properties as possible. And I admit that there’s a part of me that’s quite gleeful at the prospect of the maga-leaning parts of the country getting absolutely fucked by unexpected weather phenomena that will escalate in frequency and severity. Maybe it’ll render a bunch of those voters… unable to vote going forward, if you get my drift.
Aren't they already getting fucked, their were quite a few storms that devastated the south recently, but MSM refuses to cover then
It really sucks. I legit feel like I might get kicked out of the space industry bcz of the dumbass administration. I will end up in the private sector making rockets for space tourism, which isn't inspiring at all bcz, let's face it. Going into space and being a billionaire isn't all that special. But doing science for humankind, that's something to aspire too, and they're trying to take that away from us.
It was pure cringe how all these rich people just got back from space, like they think it's an achievement, it's nothing more than a rich person going to Everest . Shatner was quite disappointed
There's so much more to the private sector than tourism rockets! Consider:
-
Cheap components that don't work
-
Cheap satellites that don't work
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Cheap lunar landers that don't work
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Pump-and-dump get-rich-quick schemes
Man, I can't wait to work on that stuff. It sounds inspiring.
I’m stuck here, I have a career and I’m too old to start over in a foreign country. But I’ll be getting my kids dual citizenship elsewhere and encouraging them to leave if things stay the way they are.
For whatever it’s worth, I am quite sad that people like you are having their career motivations crushed by this idiocy. I wish I could help or move the needle in some way, because I think space exploration and pure science is fucking rad, but nobody gives a shit what engineers think anymore. They just plug us in to solve the problem just enough so that it’s an MVP and then don’t let us address any of the fucking tech debt. And I’m probably going off on a tangent here, but whatever. It’s Friday and I’m 4 beers deep.
We’re aiming for the biggest protest in us history (yet) on the 19th.
Space can be part of it too.
This is awful. I’m so sorry.
The anti science and intellectualism attacks has gotten worse. And stem was already teetering into abyss before, in terms of funding and stem majors finding jobs
Now we lost the space information and science race. Now, there won’t be sharing globally about scientific space breakthroughs. Now, those countries that do make those breakthroughs will sell us the information once it’s no longer relevant.
How did I have bad luck enough to end up in the stupidest timeline?
Maybe that implies it's the only timeline in which you exist.
so it's their fault
It could also be the only timeline you're in to tell me that. 🤷
They shot that fucking gorilla. That is how.
Of course they are
If you're in the USA, don't get your hopes up.
From their job descriptions:
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.
In my career I've learned there is a difference between what they ask for, and what they'll accept. If a NASA engineer with some crazy specific knowledge and skills offers their services, these rules might suddenly not apply.
Fair enough, and on that same token, if you are that person you probably don't need to check if there's even an opening that fits your knowledge. Just apply.
The other positions, though, probably will follow that requirement more closely.
I've absolutely been following some of the eurospace startups a lot more closely lately. The next time I switch jobs might be the first time I switch continents.
who needs science when you make your own truth?
In walks SpaceX I presume. Or he’ll make TelescopeX
All future telescopy will be limited to asteroid mining.
TeleGrok
No need to see anything when you can just generate random bullshit.
You can’t fix stupid. 🤦🏻♂️
I don't think stupidity is the driver here. This is all very deliberate.
Yeah, the Christ fanatics hate science and find science to be their bitter enemy, essentially
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The only thing in life that I'm actually really passionate about... Cool stuff.
This administration finds new ways for me to wish for their death every day.
caveman time
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