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  #21  
Old 04-15-2009, 12:21 PM
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NASA is how you would spell "welfare" for aerospace workers and "bailout" for aerospace companies. There are some good reasons the administration might need to throw some money at NASA if some big-ticket Defense items like the F-22 are cancelled. The Chinese are not exactly a space race until they do something we haven't already done, which isn't scheduled to happen for many years down the road even by the Chinese schedule. But we might see an increase in funding for the Ares boosters and infrastructure in Florida. It depends on how many senators are need to pass something the President really wants.
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Last edited by MarkB. : 04-15-2009 at 12:23 PM. Reason: typo
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  #22  
Old 04-15-2009, 02:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkB.
It depends on how many senators are need to pass something the President really wants.
It generally takes 50 or more to pass something.
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  #23  
Old 04-15-2009, 02:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkB.
NASA is how you would spell "welfare" for aerospace workers and "bailout" for aerospace companies. There are some good reasons the administration might need to throw some money at NASA if some big-ticket Defense items like the F-22 are cancelled. The Chinese are not exactly a space race until they do something we haven't already done, which isn't scheduled to happen for many years down the road even by the Chinese schedule. But we might see an increase in funding for the Ares boosters and infrastructure in Florida. It depends on how many senators are need to pass something the President really wants.


I understand that, but I'm saying I think the Pres. will want to take those tax dollars and spend them on social(ist) projects instead of NASA, regardless of the need for the defense contractors to find new projects. Those employees didn't get him elected the first time nor will they the next, so I don't think he's all that concerned with their job security. Time will tell.
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  #24  
Old 04-15-2009, 03:07 PM
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Is it still called a merger if one company is 1000 times bigger than the other. I would not see the point in merging with a company 1/1000 our size OR 1000 times our size. Even if the difference is 100 times the size, it still would not make sense in the market.

Fun speculation, but I don't think any of us small companies went to all the trouble of addressing a niche market to be merged, absorbed, or assimilated. We at Semroc, at least, want Estes-Cox to be the giant, so we don't have to. As spoken so eloquently earlier, the real fun in this industry is not the thousands that pass through, but the individuals that hang around.

Sort of like going to the mall. You might pass several hundred strangers there, but the one old friend you run into makes the trip worthwhile and memorable.
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  #25  
Old 04-15-2009, 03:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl@Semroc
(snip)....Sort of like going to the mall. You might pass several hundred strangers there, but the one old friend you run into makes the trip worthwhile and memorable.

Well said.
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  #26  
Old 04-15-2009, 06:03 PM
Jeff Walther Jeff Walther is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocket Doctor
Wouldn't it be nice if all of the above mentioned could be merged together into one super rocket company.


It sounds like a nightmare to me.

I've worked for both large and small organizations and larger organizations seem to have a way of taking on an intelligence (I use the term loosely) of their own, which generates directives which make little to no sense outside of bizarro world.

At least when small organizations go off the deep end, you know it's because Jorge (picked this name purely as a name that (AFAIK) is not the name of anyone currently running a rocket company) at the big desk has lost his mind and you know it's time to move on. With a big organization, it's like Jorge is in charge in some kind of disembodied state. No one can find him to fire him or buy him out.
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  #27  
Old 04-15-2009, 06:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkB.
NASA is how you would spell "welfare" for aerospace workers and "bailout" for aerospace companies.


It may not be true in all cases, but it sure seemed true when I was at NASA JSC in the mid-80s. And it's just as disheartening and soul crushing as I imagine welfare would be. Ughh.

NASA. It's like watching your favorite uncle develop dementia.
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  #28  
Old 04-15-2009, 06:10 PM
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NASA is a 50 state program for a political reason.

Jerry
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  #29  
Old 04-15-2009, 08:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Walther
It sounds like a nightmare to me.

I've worked for both large and small organizations and larger organizations seem to have a way of taking on an intelligence (I use the term loosely) of their own, which generates directives which make little to no sense outside of bizarro world.

At least when small organizations go off the deep end, you know it's because Jorge (picked this name purely as a name that (AFAIK) is not the name of anyone currently running a rocket company) at the big desk has lost his mind and you know it's time to move on. With a big organization, it's like Jorge is in charge in some kind of disembodied state. No one can find him to fire him or buy him out.


Resistance is futile!

Your uniqueness will be absorbed into the collective mind.

And that's all I got to say about that.
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  #30  
Old 04-15-2009, 09:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl@Semroc
Is it still called a merger if one company is 1000 times bigger than the other. I would not see the point in merging with a company 1/1000 our size OR 1000 times our size. Even if the difference is 100 times the size, it still would not make sense in the market.



I guess I'll tear up that contract you sent me at the beginning of April Carl...



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