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Cost Savings

|< < Prev #3197 (January 21, 2026)

Title text: Unfortunately, my scheme to trick NASA has now taken over a decade longer than planned and has run way over budget.

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Explanation

This comic depicts a ridiculous scheme, concocted by Cueball, to dupe various representatives at NASA into doing a menial task for him; specifically, he wants them to build an ordinary shed in his yard. The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) is not associated with hobbyist carpentry and certainly cannot be conventionally ordered to build a shed on a needy citizen's property.^{[citation needed]} Thus, Cueball tries to circumvent the expected barriers to this outcome by masking his true intentions in a long-winded cost-cutting presentation about a proposed satellite launch. Initially, it appears he is suggesting various ways to mitigate the cost/hassle of launching a satellite into orbit, but soon the suggestions become less about making the satellite's construction and launch more efficient and more about constructing a random structure on the ground, each one getting closer and closer to essentially saying "Ditch the satellite idea and just build a shed in my yard".

The title text is a humorous reference to the many, many project delays and increased expenses that arise during the process of launching a space mission. It implies that Cueball has been attempting this scheme (which may have required the extensive effort and connections needed to even be prepared to be seen by the NASA project team with the initial red-herring proposal) for long enough that it mirrors the setbacks a team would experience if they were actually intending to send a satellite into orbit. The James Webb Telescope is one such mission which was very delayed, as already mentioned in prior comics, notably 2014: JWST Delays.

By taking "over a decade longer than planned", the actual time taken to (not yet) achieve his goal is far longer than it would normally be expected to take to just build a shed without NASA's complicity, excepting perhaps some particularly intransigent zoning laws, and how much more longer he has actually taken (i.e. the length of the originally planned timeline) is unknown but must have been significant. Likewise, the costs incurred by Cueball has probably far exceeded what most sheds (and their construction) require, even if the end-goal is a 'free' shed paid for entirely by NASA.

Transcript

[Cueball is standing in front of a framed graph on a wall, pointing at it with a short stick. The graph is a bar graph with steadily decreasing bar heights. Hairy and Megan, seated, are looking on from behind a desk.]

Cueball: By lowering the planned satellite orbit, we can reduce the size of the launch vehicle required.

Cueball: We can reduce costs further by eliminating the satellite entirely in favor of an aerial platform.

Cueball: Some equipment could be moved to a ground-based facility, reducing required aircraft time.

Cueball: Additional savings could be...

[Caption below the panel:]

I'm trying to get NASA to build a shed in my backyard.

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