or, yknow, focusing on astronaut safety was more important than taking care of how things look on tv
This program has cost nearly $100 billion to date. Yesterday's launch alone accounted for $4.1 billion in direct costs.
Saying "it was either this or that" doesn't make sense at these magnitudes. They could have hired a professional aerospace filming team for a ridiculously overpriced $10 million and it would be an _actual_ rounding error.
If you have to make that trade off you’re already in trouble.