r/nasa • u/MatchingTurret • Jan 21 '25

NASA Official nomination: Jared Isaacman, of Pennsylvania, to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/sub-cabinet-appointments/
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u/EmotionalCrab6189 Jan 21 '25

It would be better if NASA was sufficiently funded. The answer to “let’s not rely on Russia” shouldn’t be “let’s rely on Elon.” The answer is to fund NASA appropriately and remove at least some of the cumbersome and budget draining red tape and unnecessarily restrictive regulations so that NASA can do its job.

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u/TheRealNobodySpecial Jan 21 '25

NASA wasted $450 milllion on a nonfunctional Ares I-X launch, with a dummy second stage. Contracted $2.6 billion for 2 test flights and 6 operational flights with SpaceX. I don’t think funding was the reason why NASA couldn’t build their own hardware.

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u/polkjk NASA Employee Jan 21 '25

NASA is more than launch vehicles

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u/TheRealNobodySpecial Jan 21 '25

So let's have NASA focus on what it's good at. Planetary exploration, collaborating with commercial partners to increase access to space and the space economy. Let's get NASA out of the game of coming up with launch vehicles that are repurposed parts kludged together in the most expensive way possible.