In the course of working on my Kickstarter project over the past several months, I’ve been examining the arguments in favor of the SLS program. In the course of doing so, I’ve finally come to realize that they aren’t just compelling, but irrefutable, really.

Dumbacher, Griffin, Cooke, Cook and King are right. It does take a lot of mass in orbit to get to Mars, and bigger rockets are clearly better. Sure, each flight will cost billions, but how can we put a price on national pride, and jobs in Huntsville, Promontory, Michoud and Titusville? The more I think about the hazards and complications of launching a lot of dinky rockets, and all that orbital assembly, the more I realize how risky it is, not just for our precious astronauts’ lives, but for the mission itself. And really, NASA just wouldn’t be NASA if it’s not building and launching its own giant rocket.

So I want to go formally on record as being fully supportive of this program, and I can’t wait for President Trump to come in next January to make space great again, with a yuuuuuuuge rocket, not those little dummy loser rockets that are always exploding on barges. #MakeSpaceGreatAgain