Yesterday’s Rocket

The Economist: “In his new book, The Crux, Richard Rumelt, a professor of business strategy, writes about a conversation he once had with an air-force colonel. What, Mr Rumelt asked, is the perfect fighter jet? The colonel replied: ‘The perfect design would have contractors in each state and a part made in each congressional district.’ The tale is told after Mr Rumelt has described the waste and incoherence of NASA’s Space Shuttle program—something he blames squarely on Congress.”

“Alas, Congress never learns. On August 29th or soon after, more than a decade after the shuttle program came to an end, NASA will test its newest rocket for the first time. The Space Launch System (SLS) is the first step in the agency’s Artemis program, which aims to take humans back to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars. SLS is the successor to the Space Shuttle and heir to the legendary Saturn V rocket that took Apollo astronauts to the Moon.”

“It is also a colossal boondoggle. The conception and execution of the project has been a near-perfect example of pork-barrel politics. The result is a rocket that privately built models will probably outclass soon after its maiden launch. Don’t blame the scientists and engineers at NASA for the debacle, though. The fault lies, once again, with Congress.”