ty_ger07

Grey_Beard
What happened is commercialization. Commercial enterprises cut corners and use cheap things when they can. NASA never did that and had a seller record. Need to move back to the NASA formula and chunk these corporate profit mongers out of the space travel business. I would never step foot into a commercial space rocket.

I vote for keeping NASA out of it.  Many people don't want to pay for the expense of NASA simply because they aren't that interested in the research.  Let those with interest in the field pay for the product or service offered commercially.

Grey_Beard
What happened is commercialization. Commercial enterprises cut corners and use cheap things when they can. NASA never did that and had a seller record. Need to move back to the NASA formula and chunk these corporate profit mongers out of the space travel business. I would never step foot into a commercial space rocket.

Virgin spaceship's descent system deployed early

ty_ger07
Interesting.  I was going to make a comment yesterday regarding my observation of a strange tail boom rotation shortly before the end of the feed.  But then I figured that I didn't design it and I have no idea what I am talking about.  You can see in one of the videos, there is a camera mounted to one of the stabilizers on the tail with video footage of the engine lighting off.  You can see in that video footage, the engine lights off and everything is good for a while; but then the tail starts to rotate and then the feed ends.  I thought to myself "hmm, it seems odd to place such a huge drag on the aircraft in atmosphere while the engine is blasting full force".
 
EDIT:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C1RqX47eek
Around the 1:00 mark.  I guess my recollection is not 100% since the engine was not firing at that point.  But you can clearly see the tail boom rotating, the aircraft shaking, and then the feed ends.

Grey_Beard
Although NASA has made mistakes, it will take many years before these commercial enterprises begin to know what they are doing.

ty_ger07

Grey_Beard
Until we all get the bill to travel that way or have to one day.   NASA made more of a contribution than debt and to say that is just not thinking properly.  Commercialization is not always best, no matter what distorted thinking you have.  All commercial space companies have done is proven that they could do something NASA did 50 years ago at a time when they had to make the tech.  I know, you gotta start somewhere, right.  This argument makes me laugh.

I am not arguing whether or not NASA was able to foster revolutionary technological breakthroughs.  I don't know why you are arguing that slant.  For those who care about going to space, I think the commercial operators will prove themselves capable.  For those who don't care about going to space, I think the closing of NASA's doors -- after all they were able to accomplish -- is a sigh of relief.
 
All are happy.  :)  The dream lives on for those who wish to pursue it.  Why sour it?

Brad_Hawthorne
I think the problem in some thinking is that it's either/or. Both NASA and commercial spaceflight will branch off in different directions and have different goals. I see some people showing bias towards one or the other option as though both won't co-exist. Commercial spaceflight will exist simply for the fact that satellites are consumables. They go up, sit in orbit then come down...rinse and repeat. SpaceX for example has significantly more backlog of commercial satellite launches they're booked for that have nothing to do with NASA. SpaceX did jump start them with COTS, but NASA will not be what sustains them in the future. It's going to be the same with others like Orbital Sciences and Bigelow Aerospace.