Grado de dificultad: 3 (for the idiom)
Columnista: Roberto
A “bold” announcement
Vice-president Pence is upset …
It came out of the blue. After deciding to create a “Space Force”, Aliens-style, vice president Pence just demanded for the NASA to send American astronauts to the moon. This was reported in the following article:
We already know that the acting US government officials do not bother with facts or reality, and that they are getting “emotionals”, these days (note: in a recent conference in Europe, Mr Pence, when trying to sheer up his commander in chief, received a hostile silence instead).
So, part of this pouting can be read this way.
… With Boeing
However, there is something else too. As everyone know, Boeing is facing some issues with a model of commercial plane which is supposed to be their flag holder.
But this is not the only problem Boeing is struggling with.
Boeing is (or should we say “was”) the main contractor of the NASA, in charge of its future passenger transport, the “Starliner” capsule, that is simply not working:
But wait, there is a little bit more. They are also in charge of the future official NASA rocket, the “Space Launch System”, that does work either:
Other are luckier, or better
A success, at last
Meanwhile, SpaceX just succeeded to launch, with its launcher Falcon 9, a “Crew Dragon” personnel capsule that successfully docked with the ISS.
Now, there is no miracle there. The engineers and specialists of SpaceX have the same exact pedigree as those of Boeing. Why do they succeed on one side and fail on the other?
That is a very good question to which Boeing’s big guys will have to answer, and it smells bad. Seen that way, this looks like an end of contract, publicly announced by Mr. vice-president.
5 Years, a bit short
There are, once again two way to read the brat-like crisis showed by Mr Pence.
On one end, it’s an epidermal reaction to the Boeing failure. It is a bit weird, however, to see Mr Pence lashing at the NASA, when the responsible of the failures is Boeing (just pointing out).
On the other end, the notion of lobby is a key one with American administrations. This could mean that either Elon Musk (SpaceX) or Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) (… actually Elon Musk seems more likely these days…) made some promises in that direction.
If it is the case, we strongly hope that the people who would promise that, are already working on it for a while, because 5 years is a terribly short time if they have to start now.
We, TMN nerdy dwarves, will add a comment to it: setting an unrealistic goal that would put in danger the life of far more valuable people than Mike Pence is not a proof of leadership.
USA is not alone…
Yes, Mr vice-president, you know that, don’t you? Others will go to the moon, more or less at the same time you plan to send people there.
If this is only an “Ego” challenge (no one is saying that the American government suffers such a pathetic mental disease), be aware that this will only cost you more, for an illusory victory.
A victory that Mr Pence will not even enjoy: there is an election in a little bit more than one year.
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