During the cold war, NASA spread out production all over the USA. National security blah blah. Unfortunately even today it cant be fixed politically because a politician in whatever state you want to shutdown will fight you. So you still need to figure out how to use these sunken costs. You end up making lots of bad decisions.<p>Something the article never mentions: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System</a><p>Compare this to Falcon heavy and it's a complete failure by design alone. Yes it is literally a complete failure so far... August 2022 I believe!<p>Why did it take so long? NASA needs a reset. Not unlike much of the government. This is coming for the USA. They'll smack into another debt ceiling and NASA will reallocate those resources quietly.<p>Though probably around 70 years or so from now we will see far greater privatization of NASA, but it won't be of any concern to me because I'll be in a grave on mars.