> my belief that it is intended to be little more than a quick, dirty, and vainglorious Apollo repeat by a failing government.

If the USA successfully sends people to the Moon, achieves all of NASA's technical goals, and the astronauts make it back in one piece, isn't that literally the opposite of failure?

It might be expensive and you can argue that it's wasteful. But even to that point, the $11B cost of SLS is nothing for the US Gov. For example the F35 is a >$1T government program. That doesn't seem a lot to explore a new frontier and expand the scope of humanity.

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randomNumber7 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> That doesn't seem a lot to explore a new frontier and expand the scope of humanity.

There is no gain in knowledge from this mission. It's more like cheering for your favorite soccer team.

	▲	JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> There is no gain in knowledge from this mission This is wrong. We’re learning a lot about the new life-support systems. (Courtesy of the ESA.) We’re also going to learn more about the heat shield on 10 April.

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anjel 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Its not Pork and its not science. Its a strategically costly land grab rather than a political vain-glorious stunt.

Same as Mercury/Gemini/Apollo except this time China instead of Russia.

	▲	JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> its not science. Its a strategically costly land grab Step away from your screens. Framing everything exclusively in these hard terms isn’t healthy (or true).