First Full Test of SLS Booster Fails as Engines Trigger Emergency Shutdown

Every time I hear about the problems of the SLS project, it reminds me of every government project I've ever worked on.

For people used to private industry, the difference is that in government, everything is decided in meetings. Meetings after meetings, even formally selected committees. There are meetings to decide who has the authority to select the members for the committee to make a decision about which decisions need to be formally decided. I wish I was kidding.

The worse part of it all is that each step, superficially at least, seems so... reasonable. It's not like they do crazy or stupid things! On the contrary, everything is decided by big groups of perfectly reasonable people.

Yet... the product is failure. Expensive, public, clearly avoidable, clearly wrong, and predictably faulty.

From the outside, it would be hilarious if it wasn't our money they were wasting. From the inside it's weirdly depressing, know that that no man has the power to right the ship, that it's headed towards the jagged rocks, and everyone with their hand on the tiller is convinced that they're all doing the right thing at every turn.