Joe AgredaFeb 10, 2025
Sunguramy 

I've been seeing hate on NASA lately, being bought into by leftists even, and I just want to point out something very important:

Musk has hated NASA for a *long* time. There is a reason it is being attacked, and a reason public opinion is being swayed against NASA: It *keeps SpaceX in line* more than anything else.

NASA is being seen as "competition" to SpaceX, as the obstacle in his way. It has been like this for quite some time, and now, with DOGE and other things, he can do something about it.

I would like to point out a few things:

1. SPACEX IS NOT CHEAPER
They boast they can "do what NASA does for 10% the cost!" Sure, it's easy when you did none of the R&D.
SpaceX saved on:
Landing tech: DC-X project in 1991-1996
Tank structure: Shuttle SLWT tank, 1998-2011
Merlin Engines: direct descendant of the Fastrac Engine, 1997-2001.

Those three things alone saved SpaceX over 90% of the R&D costs. It's easy to "appear" cheap when you're using off the shelf tech someone else (NASA!) developed.

2. NASA IS GREAT FOR THE ECONOMY!
For every $1 spent on NASA, $8 is put into economy. Its stupid to not invest in that kind of ROI! 800%! At times, its ROI Has been 1600%!

Simply put, if you defund NASA, the economy would shrink so much you would actually have to RAISE taxes to make up for the lost revenue, and without its existence we would be 30 years behind in technology and the quality of life for everyone would be much lower. Science and research is GOOD for society, it's the fuel for all progress.

3. WHAT HAS NASA DONE FOR ME?! (Surely you just mean NASA is good for tech & science folk....)

Nope! Good for all!
Ever have an MRI or CAT Scan? They wouldn't exist without the Apollo program! The software that made them possible was originally written to analyze lunar photography.

Low power digital x-Rays was planetary body research.

Heart pumps are modeled after space shuttle turbopumps.

The software that designed your car was originally written to design spacecraft!

Who do you think pioneered all the early research into alternative power like solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells, and durable batteries? NASA!

NASA developed tech and satellites is also what improves agricultural yields while reducing the needs for water, fertilizer, and pesticides.

Do you really think Musk gives two shits? No. He wants the money, he wants to let SpaceX run amok without any oversight for safety, without any "competition".

All fights are important, but do realise that this one is a huge thorn in his side, and one that is keeping a huge problem from ballooning and swallowing us all whole.

Do not be fooled or swayed by lies, of tactics meant to divide, of things being done to make you be angry at NASA. If he can make you hate NASA, he won.

Expect far more space junk to fall, the night sky to be ruined by satellites, and the loss of all things good that proper research and design does for humanity and gives back to the world. Not to mention: enjoy seeing the horrible things he can accomplish fully unchecked.

ETA: Now that you know, call / fax / email your senators and reps, and whatever else too! Boosting gets people thinking, but thinking is not action!

#SpaceX #nasa #space #earth #science #technology

Feb 9, 2025 at 11:46pmWeb
Show threadRuth [☕️ 👩🏻‍💻📚✍🏻🧵🪡🍵]Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy having worked there (as a contractor), I think what gets me and what Musk and his allies are 🤝 on wanting to destroy is that there is so much that NASA does for studying earth and understanding climate change and things that aren’t the 1% of shiny projects people think of. And I mean that’s maybe only 20-25% of what they do but it’s such a big and important bit. And when people on any side talk about moon stuff or Mars even, it worries me.
Show threadMartin Schröder 🇺🇳Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy
Don't forget that NASA oversees Planetary Protection, which of course Space Karen hates because it would make his plans for Mars impossible.
@sundogplanets
Show threadSunshine and WindFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy
From a capitalistic process all those side-effects /benefits should be privatised and the rewards go to the few with the foresight to build business plans.

It's easy to see why there is a push to get rid of basic research and, gulp, eventually the Public Domain and anything for the Common Good.

Show threadKnittingMittens (She/Her)Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy I need to rewatch Interstellar. Looks like our future 😕
Show threadIan SmithFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy not to mention that the entire "vision" of SpaceX is just cribbing on the work of the Space Task Group in 1969.

https://www.nasa.gov/history/55-years-ago-space-task-group-proposes-post-apollo-plan-to-president-nixon/

55 Years Ago: Space Task Group Proposes Post-Apollo Plan to President Nixon - NASA

The Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 completed the goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth

NASA
Show threadHolden GreenFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy thanks for telling me
Show threadJackieFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy I believe that NASA is one of the only redeeming qualities of the United States tbh.
Show threadseachangedFeb 10, 2025

@burnoutqueen @sunguramy

There is another.
See USGS.

Show threadJohnnoFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy Private corporations hate any government agency that seems to be in "competition" with it.
Show threadFrançoisFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy @sundogplanets So you're saying NASA is what really enabled all those mega constellations and crazy number of rocket launches, so we should make sure it survives? For the good of the planet?
Show threadΨ*ΨFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy NASA missions also help with weather forecasting, aviation, wildfire and drought tracking, climate modeling, and LITERALLY MONITORS FOR PLANET ENDING ASTEROIDS.

(Sorry for yelling. Might not have a job without them.)

Show threadDaedaleanFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy doubt anyone hates the scientists and engineers at nasa. But if you’ve seen what the administrators are going along with this isn’t unreasonable.
Show threadLeather Cub Andrew AûFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy as a leftist, my only gripe is pretty much in line with what Musk wants to do with SpaceX... the medical research great!!! Solar system events good. Space travel not so much... we need to take care of our own planet before considering colonizing planets. Pollution is one of those critical problems. One doesn't destroy their home and find a new one to not learn

SpaceX has to go: be liquidated, its engineering staff transferred to NASA or corresponding agencies across the globe.

Show threadideogramFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy
I would love to see the evidence of "CAT" scanners software originally being for Apollo. It was developed by EMI in the UK with funding from the DHSS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scan?wprov=sfla1
CT scan - Wikipedia

Show threadjsimarrogFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy bien dicho, tenéis un problema con Trump y su "troupe", mucha suerte y mucho ánimo
Show threadCatherine SchmidtFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy primary differenceS between NASA and Space X. One is EXPLORATION the other EXPLOITATION. OBJECTIVE for one is UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE the OTHER the root of all evil ….MONEY.
Show threadAjayFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy Besides that, NASA has been an icon. You don't just toss historic icons #history #Space https://traffic.libsyn.com/yinhistory/EP60-SpaceExploration.mp3
Show threadChris RealFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy

Musk hates anything that makes him look bad.

So exposing his motives is always a good move.

If you don't deviate, you will prevail. So, in these uncertain times, stick with the truth.

Lies will try to change you. The truth will let you be who you know you really are . . .

Show threadSubhendu GhoshFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy i just think of Tang and microwaves. Freeze dried food and cooking with electricity
Show threadLukefromDC16h ago

@sgnj151 @sunguramy THAT takes me back to when I was a young child-and rockets were for going to the moon, not blowing up your enemies.

Well, this was the Vietnam era so actually they were for both, but those moon launches were a fucking huge deal all over TV. In summer 1969 I was three years old, I still have even grainer memories of that grainy footage from the moon shown on a small black and white TV.

Best of all, the moon programs of both the US and the Soviet Union may have diverted resources from ICBMs, as they gave the US and the Soviet Union a way to compete in rockets without loading them with nuclear warheads.

I actually consider it a disappoinment that the Soviet moon rocket blew up on the pad, leaving the US with a monopoly on in-person lunar exploration. With Apollo 11 having landed, the Russians gave up. Their booster engine was actually excellent, but 27 of them in an booster that could blow up from just one bad engine was just too many bites at the "mission fail" apple. As I recall, metal shavings/debris in a turbopump were blamed for the explosion.

Show threadcatraxx Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy 100% agree! More people need to realize that SpaceX is nothing but daylight robbery.
Show threadDrewFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy which leftists are anti NASA and why
Show threadFly-paper-love-makerFeb 10, 2025
@crmsnbleyd @sunguramy I am. I have a friend high up at NASA. For me leftism is equalizing power, education, control, and material reality. Those are not NASA’s goals. NASA is about pushing the boundaries of exploration. Get the smartest engineers together to push outward. I’m in construction and I’ve never heard a laborer “inspired” by any of it. There are so many bad arguments, I couldn’t talk them through in a toot, but I have counters.
Show threadThis Account Kills FascistsFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy If your ass has ever been saved by a fire map, thank NASA!
Show threadseachangedFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy

Additionally, Aeronautics is NASA's middle name, before Space. The FAA works closely with NASA on research topics that eventually become industry practice. See Nextgen, UTM, AAM, ETM...

Show threadSammiFeb 10, 2025
@seachanged @sunguramy Yep centers like Dryden work exclusively on flying technology.
Show threadToni AittoniemiFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy I agree. It’s the usual private equity business, where they come in and rip out everything but the bare necessities and make as much money as possible with the corpse until it fails.

SpaceX might be good now, but just wait until there’s no competition. It’ll be as bad as Boeing or worse.

What worries me most though is people who outright believe that they can take out the government without them becoming the government.

Show threadsoloFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy I mean, fuck, we literally would not have modern weather forecasts without nasa.
Show threadAlexander Goeres 𒀯Feb 10, 2025
@Amata :verified_genderqueer: being bought into by leftists even please show me one or more examples of this leftist hate against nasa ...
Show threadSammiFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy As an ex NASA employee, NASA has always been the target of Republicans. The sheer stupidity of the way the US government is run... As a few examples:

1. Project cut, reinstated, cut etc... Costing billions of dollars
2. We ran out of paper one year, We weren't allowed to buy anymore ....
3. My chair broke, wasn't allowed to buy another one until the next FY....

Despite this NASA continues to develop brilliant technology only to be handed over to the private sector......

Show threaddoomy 🦀Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy genuine q since you seem knowledgeable about this, not concern trolling. has NASA's focus changed towards defense instead of discovery as time goes on? is this something to be worried about, or is that not really how that works? its hard to trust any american institution these days (which i get is kind of the goal of republicans)
Show threadOliver SchafeldFeb 10, 2025

Plus a Starlink "giga-constellation" poses significant environmental risks.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-serious-an-issue-is-enviro-Nl37hekORKyL40EuDytKZg

And SpaceX rockets with "airplane-like reusability" (and the resulting fictitious cargo costs to Mars) will likely remain a fantasy.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/are-spacex-rocket-engines-less-ZURccK6ZQ_uRGQ9Yfr_OKQ

Show threadNoortje Van LeeuwenFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy spaceX is nasa from Temu...filled with stolen designs.
Show threadDave Dee HAS MOVEDFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy It seems that a lot of people need to be re-educated about what "public value" means.

A country is not a company. A president is not a CEO and we the people are not its slaves without rights.

It's horrible to see how so many people have been blinded in what public value actually means for them in daily life - and what it will mean once it is destroyed beyond repair.

"I am me and my circumstances; if I do not save them, I do not save myself."- José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955)

Show threadTwoflower (he/him) ⏚Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy thanks, I'll have some arguments to oppose my boss when he praises El*n M*sk (thinks this piece of $hit is a genius... Ok he's alos a NFT fan, AI enthusiast, etc)
Show threadRaul PortalesFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy another great example of short term vision. NASA is spending now, but the benefits come in the future, and so usual with innovation, you can't predict what they'll be used for.
Show threadRJFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy Wow!! Fantastic and well written post - thank you.
Show threadDave EverittFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy that
Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy Also, even with the head start of other people's R&D, Starship is embarrassingly slow compared to the Apollo program - which, at this point in its timeline, where Starship isn't even manned yet, had flown over a dozen missions, including five to the moon & putting a space station in orbit, and had retired gracefully.

"Developing at high speed" my lily-white ass.

Show threadwinkFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy FWIW, I've seen more "hate" directed at them for preemptively complying than anything else, but maybe I've not looked at the (public/media) commentary enough from afar in Europe.
Show threadzl2todFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy
And Musk will be perfectly happy to let Tesla fall into the fires of hell if he can achieve his goal of total control of space.
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy I feel like when it comes to stuff like this the part of me that wants to nerd out about space and is fascinated by the technology and the part of me that is concerned about the environmental impact of this and the ties to the military industrial complex tend to conflict a lot. But both are in agreement that spacex is far worse than nasa could ever be and that they and other space billionaire vanity projects shouldn’t exist. And I hate that fascist billionaire with a passion.

It would be kind of nice if we could have research in things like medical tech, renewable energy or meteorology without all of this bullshit and environmental devastation. Spaceflight might be fascinating but I’m kind of sceptical about if we can really afford all the environmental devastation it brings, especially considering the climate catastrophe. And I especially don’t think there is any reason to be sending people to the moon or mars. It’s just a vanity project and the environment will pay the price (and in turn people will, as people depend on the environment). I can kind of see arguments for unmanned probes, and perhaps even for continuing to send people to the ISS, and it’s reasonable to maintain satellite infrastructure like communication or weather satellites (not the absolutely disastrous starlink bullshit) I suppose. But beyond that it’s just pollution for no good reason, which is why I’m not too fond of nasa, even though I agree that it being defunded in favor of spacex would make things much, much worse

Show threadMarge吴静玫Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy My spouse works as a subcontractor with NASA. The impact NASA has on small businesses, like the engineering firm he works for, is massive.
Show threadJohn MeadowsFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy Spending on science in general in the US is a rounding error compared to what is spent on the war machine.
Show threadThomas EisenbockFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy NASA takes a major role in research of and publications about climate change. That's why Trump will support Musk in taking over.
Show threadJari Komppa 🇫🇮 (has moved)Feb 10, 2025
@sunguramy My favorite NASA invention are those grooves on the side of the road that wake up drivers when they're drifting off road. Originally invented to make taxiing of space shuttles easier.
Show threadVirginicusFeb 11, 2025
@sol_hsa @sunguramy Still not as good as Tang.
Show threadNoel KellyFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy

So the parasite wants to kill the host.

Musk spend from the late 90s(97?) until 2005 lobbying Congress, especially the GOP, to force NASA massively increase outsourcing. The laws passed in 2005.

SpaceX was founded in 2002.

There are photos of him celebrating with a particular GOP Congressman. I haven't been able to google them recently. All I get is recent Musk w/ GOPers or generic 2000s Musk photos.

Show threadsnowyfoxFeb 10, 2025
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Show threadYzaFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy a private company could *never* be cheaper, because at least some amount of revenue would be siphoned off by the shareholders. that's the main difference

but even if space x (formerly space twitter) was able to match NASA in output and expenditure all those cool technologies they develop wouldn't do shit for the rest of society because space x would sit on the patents

Show threadDark Photon StudioFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy I'm sure someone will do something about it, any day now.
Show threadKevin FjelstedFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy @alexhall NASA may be fine ad research but at some point commercialization needs to happen and that is never the governments business! Every project listed in the orrigional post talks about research but no application for commercialization. NASA has no structure nor should it for creating a profitable business. Finally, NASA will ask for unending funds like any research institution because there is no encentive to optimize or economize. If you don't like SpaceX having all the fun then create competition in the private sector that can use that research! Probably stay away from Boeing since they seem to have found a way to spend unfinite government money without any thought for safety or economy! How about SpaceX for safety and economy?
Show threadSamuelJohnsonMay 29, 2025

@kfjelsted @sunguramy @alexhall All the fun you say?

https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/spacex-has-finally-figured-out-why

https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/starship-was-doomed-from-the-beginning

Any democratic govt is free to decide what business it will engage it. Get over it.

SpaceX Has Finally Figured Out Why Starship Exploded, And The Reason Is Utterly Embarrassing

This should never have happened.

Will Lockett's Newsletter
Show threadvxoFeb 10, 2025

@sunguramy ohhhh that explains this one old news file package I found while transferring tapes from the 1980s... wherein a prototype for an artificial heart was being developed and bench tested at Aerojet-Rocketdyne in Rancho Cordova, California.

Makes perfect sense now if they were adapting it from spacecraft turbopump designs.

Show threadunlofl [Promoted Toot]Feb 10, 2025

@sunguramy I've seriously advocated returning to the moon for these reasons.

As long as we're locked in to the current system, the Apollo missions were the greatest economic stimulus and investment in research we've ever undertaken except probably WWII.

Show threadTreeVorFeb 10, 2025
@sunguramy thank you for this. NASA does amazing things with a comparatively tiny budget and not enough people talk about the benefits of what they do.