[sashahrzg]

This. This right here. I absolutely hate seeing the two compared. They're doing two very different things with two very different goals.

[dotnet00]

Their goals are similar, NASA is just hamstrung by Congress and the general public. If NASA had the freedom to choose its direction they too would be working on a Starship style rocket by now, not attempting to pass off a dinosaur as modern.

[MichaelCollins]

> NASA is just hamstrung by Congress and the general public

I don't think you can assert that NASA hasn't or wouldn't fall to Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy. What makes NASA special to be immune to such dysfunction?

[p_l]

Or they might have ran their original design of STS instead of one hamstrung and made hilariously expensive due to contract with DoD

[zmgsabst]

What do you think is different about their goals?

[sashahrzg]

SpaceX is a profit motivated company with large degrees of flexibility. They move fast and break ships. NASA is a research institution focused on scientific advancement and space research. They also are very rigid due to the way they receive funding. NASA cannot afford to move to a starship style system because the SLS contract was locked in.

[bottlepalm]

All that scientific advancement to end up 50 years later with a Moon vehicle not much more different than Apollo.