feonixrift

I'd actually had no idea of the level of precaution they were going to... It's nice that they care about astronaut safety, but it's mind-boggling in a lot of ways. And yeah, even back in 2000, I recall a major attitude of "just don't do anything that could have impacts that could threaten our funding." Most of the groups I encountered seemed to live in constant fear of a funding cut, trying to squeeze as much science into whatever they could get to fly as possible, while making as few waves as possible. A sad fate for such initially bold efforts. Of course, I was nowhere near the manned missions stuff, so I have no idea what it's like, but sounds like the same deal there from the outside.