[byerley]

Stop buying bullshit narratives against state funded science.

Rocket test stands are not limited to a single rocket model. The choice in 2010 was to spend $57m finishing a project that will undoubtedly see future use, or to abandon a $292m investment with 0 return.

Look for SpaceX to jump on this opportunity since they already lease testing facilities from Stennis.

[Bluestrike2]

It's not an argument against state-funded science. It's an argument against politicians using that funding to screw over the fundees.

[greglindahl]

SpaceX uses slight variants of their 1st stage rocket engines in vacuum, so they don't really need this kind of testing. And this test rig is 10x larger than SpaceX's current vacuum Merlin 1D needs.

[maaku]

This testing gets you valuable information about performance and stress characteristics which can allow you to make improvements to the rocket, either by changing its shape for better efficiency or by making it lighter where it turns out to be over engineered. SpaceX hasn't been doing this testing yet because it hasn't been necessary and building a test stand too expensive. Now they could.

[kiba]

SpaceX do need to test their methane rocket engine design, which is bigger than the Merlin.