I would not want to be an astronaut in these days of corporate run NASA. Where science and engineering is shunned as “woke” and flashy PR and using tax dollars for corporate profit are all that matter.
That just isn’t what the astronauts deal with, though? They either go do research on the ISS or wait for the next Artemis mission to go do research on it near the moon.
Yeah, just meant safety-wise. With corporate built launch systems from companies with a track record of overworking employees and higher than IMHO acceptable rates of injury and death of employees in places like SpaceX, it seems like a hard time to be an astronaut and put trust in the dangerous equipment you’re working with. Of course, when it was new, there were similar trust issues, but that was more exciting to be on the cutting edge. Now it’s just corporate greed making it more dangerous, not just being the first to do it.
It’s interesting that both of the astronauts who flew on the Boeing Starliner have since retired. They were already toward the ends of their careers, but that had to be the final nail in the coffin.
Orion’s heat shield would keep me up at night if I worked on the program. I know they cleared it and changed the reentry profile, but they also approved of it before Artemis 1…
Looking back, it’s pretty surprising that Dragon hasn’t had some more serious issues with crew aboard. Especially given the above recent safety issues and going back to Shuttle and Apollo.
