Have a look, he wrote "non-mission critical" and not wrote "no (space) mission critical" nor "not (space) mission critical" nor "no (space) mission-critical". There was no "mission-critical" written together, while there was "non-mission" confusingly written together. Am I clear? Read the sentence and make sure, that you really see what about I am writing.
I understand that "not" or "non" can be used, but I do not know about any usage of term "non-mission" or "not-mission". Maybe "non-mission equipment" can be said, but why for God sake?
Even if he would wrote more correctly "non mission critical, even more understandable would be "not mission critical" and the best woud be "no(t) mission-critical". Because "critical to a misiion" is "mission-critical" written together, while "mission ciritical" written not together (can) mean that the mission itself is critical. For eample, I made a TRRPG focused on relatioships, so it is relatioships-related (written together to be clear, athough ""relatonships related TTRPG" would be understandable too, but I am quite sure that it would not be so clear nor gramatically genial).
Even simple soldier would not be making mistakes (even not just gramatical) in such mission-critical terms as are "mission-critical" and "not mission-critical" or "mission-noncritical" etc. So I am not buying it as (inner) monologue nor as military jargon.
Anyway, for me, reading that story was like driving on a road with few bumps, therefore my rating for it was slightly worse. But I rated it still nicely, not?
I understand, that "that" can be removed, especially in simple sentences, including "if" type of sentences. But in my native language, we are conecting "consider" always with "as". So for me, who is still thinking mainly in my native language, the idea of dropping "as" after "consider" feels wrong if you catch my drift. If I understood you well, I can drop "as" after "consider" anytime when the "as" does not feel really neccessary?
I even literaly liked your reply and I am apologizing for this looong lament. Feel free to discuss with me Czech language (native for me) or - wait for it - SANSKRIT!:) (So English is precisely my TERTIARY language - heh.).