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Former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz Praises Private Space Entrepreneurs

posted by martyb on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the nothing-ventured... dept.

takyon writes:

As it turns out, failure is an option:

During a panel discussion with other Apollo flight directors in Houston, Kranz was asked how NASA accomplished so much, so quickly, in the 1960s and early 1970s, but hasn't been back to deep space since then. By some accounts, in the decades following the Moon landings, NASA has succumbed to a "mind-numbing" bureaucracy and a "paralyzing" cultural requirement for perfection, especially after two space shuttle accidents. Kranz said NASA benefited from a different culture in the 1960s.

"It was an environment in which we were more capable of accepting risk as a nation," Kranz replied. "Space involves risk, and I think that's the one thing about Elon Musk and all the various space entrepreneurs: they're willing to risk their future in order to accomplish the objective that they have decided on. I think we as a nation have to learn that, as an important part of this, to step forward and accept risk."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @12:59AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @12:59AM (#494615)
    Well, think of NASA in its halcyon days of the 1960s. They sent people to the moon in that decade, and that was obviously not without big risks. Apollo 1 ended in flames before it even got off the ground, killing Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, and after the tragedy, Chaffee’s father tearfully remarked that sometimes the price of progress is too great. Today, he might have angrily sued NASA. There was even a congressional investigation into the matter, which today might have ended the Apollo program entirely. Many of the problems NASA has today come not so much from the organisation itself, but from Congress, which provides NASA with its funding. If you don’t give an organisation the money it needs to do its mission when it needs it, then you ought not to be surprised that it takes longer and costs even more. That’s what happened to the JWST. [scienceblogs.com]

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:54AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:54AM (#494696) Journal

    Interesting article on the JWST [scienceblogs.com] telescope. Seems congress is bad but NASA itself also seem to do things in a manner that induce large costs. Which has been obvious in plans for manned Mars missions at least. Specifically the 1990 paper by Robert Zubrin compared to NASAs plan. Seems no NASA plan can go ahead unless it provides funding for all pet projects of various people at said institution.

    Private space industry will probably loosen this. Otoh, it can also be a curse and perverted incentives.