Stagnate my foot. SLS is below budget and they have already done tests on near full size tanks.
The real difference is that von Braun didn't have a blogosphere of folks trying to get the Saturn V HLLV killed before it was even made. Things take time. Space X is no spring chicken either--and if you go by timetables, then Musk is doing poorly in that SLS is at the physical article stage AHEAD OF SCHEDULE and it is BFR that is only a powerpoint rocket at this point.
Arsenal method works--if people will
let it.
Sojourner forgets that JPL can be described as a jobs program for Pasadena too.
But even if this were true--it is not a bad thing in that it allows political support.
It is good that NASA is spread over the South, for the Red Staters there would likely kill NASA if it were seen as a Northeastern liberal program. Now talk about poor progress! The Southern inclination actually allows support from folks who normally want to kill anything gov't does.
The common "wisdom" is that NASA is slowed by "standing armies." It is more realistic to see them as standing constituencies that vote--without which there may not even be a NASA, whose shoulders (COTS money) Musk has ridden on, much to ULA's disgust.
ULA floated all the bogus HLV bashing depot nonsense that ULA's own Josh Hopkins has questioned in his piece Doubts about Depots. Space Safety Magazine has already pointed out boil-off problems depots have in losing hydrogen--that will be a problem using piecemeal approaches with lots of medium class LVs that will cost as much if not more than fewer, larger of larger HLVs with higher volumetric efficency and simpler assembly.
People bought into this scheme which was just a way to kill Ares V and force the EELV stable onto NASA, and kudos to Mike Griffin for standing up to the USAF and ULA.
But the damage is done, and the anti-HLV propaganda has put to seed in folks minds, even though these same folks have Musk in their sights, and given time--will go after him with other self-serving arguements, as aerospace corp has already done:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=8983858&postcount=9
http://nationalspacestudiescenter.w...ce-and-what-do-they-want-in-commercial-space/
So it has been because of "big gov't" NASA funding into
both HLV
and Musk's cheaper rockets, that ULA's strangle hold monopoly has been broken--and that's a good thing. For once, the civilians have told the USAF to quit interfering in space matters.
I see no evidence of stagnation, which as an overall complaint was debunked by other posters in its own thread.
In this era, we crave novety--if we don't see something done today--we think things go slowly. I blame this on our short attention span theatre culture--not a lack of progress.
