SLS seems like it has 0 benefits of being public or private. NASA doesn’t own the full design anymore, so they can’t even take it to other manufacturers, but they also aren’t insulated from any cost issues, and the manufacturers have no incentive to improve anything. It really feels like the worst of both worlds.
As a side note, I’m still pretty new to the industry (as in, new to working in, but having followed it for a lot longer) and the program management and systems engineering contracting/outsourcing going on was mindboggling to me when I started to hear about it from former coworkers moving into those roles. Of all the things to outsource, those two things seem like the last two that really need to stay in house.
SLS seems like it has 0 benefits of being public or private. NASA doesn’t own the full design anymore, so they can’t even take it to other manufacturers, but they also aren’t insulated from any cost issues, and the manufacturers have no incentive to improve anything. It really feels like the worst of both worlds.
As a side note, I’m still pretty new to the industry (as in, new to working in, but having followed it for a lot longer) and the program management and systems engineering contracting/outsourcing going on was mindboggling to me when I started to hear about it from former coworkers moving into those roles. Of all the things to outsource, those two things seem like the last two that really need to stay in house.