Well, I do take offense. I won't deny that some level of cronyism is sometimes helpful in winning work. Thats true in any industry. But after you win the work, you have to deliver. My company hasn't lasted 70 years and grown to 750 employees in 33 offices without delivering the goods.
Ahh. I chopped the longer explanation because it was so off-topic.
There's no accountability that's real because we haven't seen the first fatalities from commercial space flight yet. The need of government to continue "certifying" spaceports and what not wont diminish when they eventually do happen. So even then, by definition it's a never-ending business. Möbius loop.
Your company has the world's experts. You goof up, the government may go with your competitor the next time. 90% of your employees would just move over to the new contracting company. Worst case. The experts in such a limited field won't be changing that quickly. You guys have the "time in the logbook" so to speak. No one can catch up or pass you without objective goals.
Best case for you, your firm may get a slap on the wrist and still get the next "certification" contract because you'd have the "new knowledge" of a "lesson learned". Or as mentioned above they might award the contract the next time around to the competitor and all the experts will just jump ship as one place lays off and the other hires to meet the needs of the contract.
And this is all assuming we are only talking about government contracts. Handshake deals and how "comfortable" a private customer feels with the brand name are more important in the private sector. They get that comfort from delivering the "goods" of course. So no insult intended at all.
Your company, or more accurately, your people at any company name will be "certifying" spaceports until I die.
The telling evidence of similar behavior was in the Boeing 787 certification video recap I posted recently. The head of the certification group listed three distinct goals. Goal one was FAA certification. Goal two was Safety. Third, I forget. Not relevant to what I noticed in the video...
The interesting part was that he split them. What's the supposed overall goal of FAA Certification? Ostensibly, Safety. Boeing saw them as separate Corporate goals. That's a huge indicator that Certification has grown out of control into something that's not really just about Safety. Its a subtle sign, but seems to match the external world of $300 LED landijg lights.
He was also very clear that Certification had top priority above Safety which was refreshingly honest and honestly a bit eerie, if you take his words at exactly face value.
This was a script he was working from, that went through who-knows how many levels of Marketing/PR and Legal vetting, so I'm not buying that no one caught the wording.
It was very clear that in his world "FAA Certification" and "Safety" weren't synonymous.
Completely different bonus plans, so to speak. Guess which one Boeing probably gave him a bonus on? People work toward the prize. His prize was tacked on to Certification deadlines, we can almost be certain.
Anyway... Certification and standards are great. Everyone should have their own... As we joke in IT. No offense meant but at the end of the day, I hope something you thought up and added to the process saves some lives. That's the goal. The rest is just paperwork and paint on the pig.
You probably will. You're a smart guy. If your firm gets kicked off a contract for a screw up, or worse, political reasons, you'll still land on your feet at the next firm unless you signed the document that missed something super-obvious that all the other rocket scientists also missed.
In economic terms, the government will always need a "supply" of certification contract firms as long as there's commercial space flight. You buys have the experience so your people will always fill the "demand" side of the equation. If you don't deliver, the name of the firm will change. The people won't.
The owners of the current firm won't even lose a moment's sleep over getting new business going doing something else. They have "relationships" (e.g. that built in chronyism...) with the right folks in the government bureaucracy. The employees will probably have to run around shuffling chairs, musical chairs style. Painful, but the music won't stop.
