Quote from: Tom Bishop on July 15, 2017, 04:37:51 AM

Non-allied countries tend to cast doubt and skepticism on each other's space capabilities.

Why bother pretending to even have a space program?  It would be cheaper to expose the "fraud" of the big players.

Do you consider $18T cheap?  because that is what NASA and the gov't would have to answer for after the "lack of space" was exposed.  They would have to shutdown and all their subcontractors shutdown, the thousands of lost jobs and the law suits.  every "space" related program in every university and college would be shut down.  Then ultimately, the mighty question to all the 'space' people, "how have you been looking out into space and not known?"

It's bigger than just letting the cat-out-of-the-bag, way bigger.