\n\n“Zubrin once worked at Lockheed Martin, where he once discovered a way for a rocket to carry twice as much weight. “We went to management, the engineers, and said, ‘Look, we could double the payload capability for 10 percent extra cost.’ They said, ‘Look, if the Air Force wants us to improve the Titan, they’ll pay us to do it!'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASA was paying contractor’s development costs and then adding 10 percent profit. The more things cost, the bigger the contractor’s profit. So contractors had little incentive to innovate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Even NASA now admits this is a problem. During its 2020 budget request, Administrator Jim Bridenstine confessed, “We have not been good at maintaining schedule and\u2026at maintaining costs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nor is NASA good at innovating. Their technology was so out of date, says Zubrin, that “astronauts brought their laptops with them into space\u2014because shuttle computers were obsolete.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked, “When (NASA) saw that the astronauts brought their own computers, why didn’t they upgrade?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Because they had an entire philosophy that various components had to be space rated,” he explains. “Space rating was very bureaucratic and costly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASA was OK with high costs as long as spaceships were assembled in many congressmen’s districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“NASA is a very large job program,” says Aerospace lawyer James Dunstan. “By spreading its centers across the country, NASA gets more support from more different congressmen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congressmen even laugh about it. Rep. Randy Weber (R\u2013Texas) joked, “We’ll welcome (NASA) back to Texas to spend lots of money any time.””<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Twenty years ago, at Lockheed Martin, Zubrin had proposed reusable boosters. His bosses told him: “Cute idea. But if we sell one of these, we’re out of business.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zubrin explains, “They wanted to keep the cost of space launch high.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, now that self-interested entrepreneurs compete, space travel will get cheaper. Musk can’t waste a dollar. Space X must compete with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and others.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n