I rewatched Royal Space Force: the Wings of Honneamise with some friends and, maybe just because the themes are mostly the same, I compared it to Twin Spica a bit and I think I preferred its attention towards a situation in a somewhat dubiously-managed/supported rocket program
Yeah, it's not the same in a lot of aspects, as Twin Spica is about the testing and trying of what being a part of a program, in spite of what it means to give up and the impact it has on one's dreams, but I think that, even with Lhadatt's disparaged outlook and the greater politics of their space program, Honneamise fills a much more rewarding aspect towards it's launch, so to speak. Maybe it was that we actually got to the rocket and the full space mission as a climax, instead of a portion of a chapter for the final volume, but it's the difference between movie and manga formatting. It also could be the more masculine energy about it all, being in the present while Twin Spica was springboarding a lot from its past setting, but both hit a similar kind of positive energy in the face of what could be disaster, with aims of hope and encouragement behind them.
that being said, I still enjoyed bonking Asumi and the rest of the cast, but, as a retrospective, I can understand some of my feelings towards its shortcomings