Subject:
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Re: Some good news for a change, maybe?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 24 Jun 2004 01:47:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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1351 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, J. Spencer Rezkalla wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> > Imagine a different world in which we saw dozens of Saturn launches a year,
> > building up space manufacturing infrastructure. By now we'd have the flying cars
> > we were promised. (rhetorical comment)
> >
> > Killing off Saturn was a stupid thing to do, no matter who you pin the blame on.
>
> Probably. But how many major aerospace endeavors come off exactly like they
> sound on paper? Hindsight is always 20/20. I certainly wouldn't call the shuttle
> program a huge mistake.
Me either. At least not the idea of it, and the time was about right, or if
anything. My issues are with the execution of it. Too many compromises for it to
achieve the promised cost reductions that would have driven vastly greater
usage.. (more use means lower cost per use in most cases elsewhere)
> Sure, it didn't deliver the promised goods, but I
> believe the experience of designing, building, and flying a reusable spacecraft
> will prove invaluable in the long run.
Undoubtedly. I'm not a space basher by any means. I'm just not happy with NASA
over the last 35+ years. Some is their fault (I've worked in and around enough
government projects to know how empire building works and how it looks from the
outside). Some is Congress's fault. Some is the fault of various presidents for
jerking around the mission that NASA is supposed to achieve.
But it's time for something else, and this government needs to get out of the
way and let it happen instead of being difficult. It's not enough to have
"facilitate" in your mission statement, you have to actually do it.
And that's my entire point.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Some good news for a change, maybe?
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| (...) Probably. But how many major aerospace endeavors come off exactly like they sound on paper? Hindsight is always 20/20. I certainly wouldn't call the shuttle program a huge mistake. Sure, it didn't deliver the promised goods, but I believe the (...) (20 years ago, 23-Jun-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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