Second source, not open source, is the key

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umm, perhaps your definition of successful is "biased"

A good example would be NASA. They don't have second source vendors for the space shuttle and yet they seem to be doing just fine.

I have to say this is just about the worst example of a single sourced success one could ever have imagined ...

NASA lost 2 shuttles, 40% of its fleet ignoring its vendors and sticking its head in the sand due to lack of competitive pressure.

NASA killed the unmanned launch program to force Congress to fund the Shuttle program even though unmanned vechiles are better suited to many programs than manned cargo ships (which cost something like 20x as much per pound to operate).

NASA "lost" the plans to the only 100% successful large transport vehicle (Saturn V) rvrt built ... we need to use Russia's heavy lift vehicle (Energia) which is a clone of Saturn because we "forgot" how to build unmanned heavy lift rockets.

The DOD had to resurect its own launch capability because NASA was unable to meet its commitment to Congress and the DOD to provide - ehat was the promise - was it a Shuttle lift every two weeks or something like that?

NASA is right up there with other "single source" vendors as a model of inefficiency!

Even Mother Nature leaves design to multiple teams hence the concepts called "gene pool" and "evolution"!

Posted by: oldskool   Posted on: 06/16/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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