:…Our grandchildren are on the hook for us.”

Quite so. Social Security taxes are theft that most people go along with out of a sense of charity because it’s cheaper than adoption. ;)

I was on the hook, too. The system expropriates our resources, betting that we’ll pass away before we can make draws on the system.

I’ve survived long enough that I can get my own money back. Eventually, I’ll maybe get money paid by people who passed before they could get their own money back. If I had passed and they did not, the system is the system. None of us refused to participate knowing that we’re all just playing the lottery.

“…the Gumint is no better at managing Social Security than it
is at building rockets.”

Quite so. Social Security taxes are theft that most people go along with out of a sense of charity because it’s cheaper than adoption. ;)

“As for SLS, well, would YOU sign up for a ride on that thing??”

Yes, because, when the time comes, it would be more exciting than going out into the forest looking for a mama bear and her cubs. The life insurance company would pay due to demise by accident/natural causes.

Let us talk about futures contracts and credit. The money we paid (and I am still paying) into the system was spent decades ago. Our grandchildren are on the hook for us. It is the very definition of a modern major debacle.

SLS is ready to fly at least. There were tornado strikes and such. SuperHeavy not having ‘sparklers’ for methane? That looked junior league. I look forward to NTRs atop SLS.”

SLS has been delayed another year. Looking pretty junior league.
Unless your just looking to suck more money out of NASA then they are doing a pretty top notch job.

You may find, as we all will, the the Gumint is no better at managing Social Security than it
is at building rockets.

As for SLS, well, would YOU sign up for a ride on that thing??

I paid into the system for decades, I expect the promised return.

Then I read his comments to Axios the other day in their big SLS story, and maybe it fell into place a little more.

_____
Big exploration programs need political support, and if the leaders of these companies — like Musk — align themselves with one political party over another, as the SpaceX CEO has done with the Republican Party, it could turn people off to the space program at large.

“If they see NASA enriching a strongly Republican-associated” individual, “that can alienate a big swath of public from this whole endeavor, more than spending an extra couple billion dollars on a rocket built in Alabama,” Dreier said.

https://www.axios.com/2022/08/23/nasa-artemis-rocket-space-launch-system-launch

NASA needs to just buy enough paint to make their logo on Starships much bigger, and park the SLS. And Orion can go further than Dragon, but not to Mars. Park it too.

The old school aerospace companies are not launch companies but engineering, development and manufacturing companies. They do not care if anything ever flies to space as long as they get the cash for designing it and making it.
And the longer they could stretch it out the better for their retirements.

I understand them starting the project because they wanted to reuse all the old shuttle parts and tech. But that idea flew out the window inside of a few weeks after it was approved. At that point congress should have started to review it with a real eye towards saving money.

At least ten years of waste would have been skipped or at least wasted someplace else.

Call Me Ishmael: Yes, I was referring to the second manned launch.

Do you mean the second manned launch? Apollo 8 was actually the third launch of a Saturn 5, although the second unmanned test flight had some serious problems (nasty pogo).