I don't mind the 'race', competition drives us harder and gives us a reason for advancing. After all, technology always advances fastest during wars. It's a discussion for another topic, but I personally think humans need competition on some level to really thrive.
What I think is really tragic is that, for some reason, it's necessary to build an entirely new set of systems, no doubt handing out tons of cash to contractors, non-government agencies, and various deserving individuals, when we've had the technology since the freakin' 60's.
You know we have three fully functional Saturn V rockets just sitting around, right? We could easily just rebuild the old moon lander module with modern technology. There's nothing wrong with the design. With all the space we save with modern technology we might even be able to include a decent bathroom.
The Ruskies are still using the Soyuz design, and there's nothing critically wrong with the Apollo design.
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