[yosito]

I can only speak for myself, but as someone who worked at NASA, my question is, how does working together with SpaceX in any way detract from the amazing things humanity has accomplished by working together? NASA doesn't have exclusive bragging rights on accomplishing things in space, and I for one am happy to celebrate and cooperate with others. In fact, one of the most inspiring things about NASA's accomplishments is how people from all over the world have come together and cooperated for the betterment of humanity.

[wolverine876]

> how does working together with SpaceX in any way detract from the amazing things humanity has accomplished by working together?

Who said it did? I'm not sure what you are responding to.

However, working with an entity that perverts merit-based decision-making with public pressure could certainly be harmful, and Musk acts by manipulationg the public. Other NASA partners don't do that. The Europa Clipper, for example, will take years longer to reach its destination - a critical milestone that will delay the exploration of life on Europa for years (if I understand correctly)- due to being switched to a SpaceX launch. It was switched for technical problems later determined to be meritless.

[jccooper]

Officially, it was switched because SLS is unavailable. The program had been trying to get away from it due to its enormous cost, but was only able to get this change through Congress when the inability of SLS to fly more than once a year became obvious.

The vibration issues were also very real.