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Apollo 15 command module pilot Alfred M. Worden: ‘NASA took a step backwards’
Deutsche Welle ^ | 23.01.2015 | Cornelia Bormann

Posted on 01/24/2015 5:50:40 PM PST by Olog-hai

He’s one of a handful of men to have orbited the moon. Today, Alfred M. Worden says NASA’s on the wrong track. He also tells DW why he likes the moon’s dark side and what he wanted most—but didn't get—upon returning. […]

“We took a step backwards back in the late 70s when they decided to build the space shuttle. That was, in my opinion, a mistake. The shuttle was a very complicated machine. It did some pretty unusual, clearly spectacular things, like launch vertically and land horizontally. But from a technical standpoint, we launched a 280,000 pound machine to carry 25,000 pounds up to space. To go to the International Space Station.

“If we had maintained the Saturn V as a launch vehicle, we would have put eight times as much into Earth’s orbit. What’s interesting to me is: We are going back to the Saturn V system for the future programs. The Orion spaceship is almost a carbon copy of the Apollo spacecraft.” …

(Excerpt) Read more at dw.de ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Military/Veterans; Science
KEYWORDS: alfredmworden; apollo; apollo15; moon; muslimoutreach; nasa; orion; saturnv; spaceexploration
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1 posted on 01/24/2015 5:50:40 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Our real step backward was when we went back to the 7th century and decided to focus on Muslim outreach.


2 posted on 01/24/2015 5:53:36 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Malort, turning taste-buds into taste-foes for generations.)
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To: Olog-hai

President Johnsons’ decision to destroy the Black Family took precedent over any NASA mission.


3 posted on 01/24/2015 5:56:50 PM PST by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: Olog-hai
Barack Obama: NASA must try to make Muslims 'feel good'

Barack Obama wants Nasa to acknowledge Muslim achievements and contributions to science maths and engineering

4 posted on 01/24/2015 6:23:26 PM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: Olog-hai

Should have kept going to the moon and built a station there.


5 posted on 01/24/2015 6:35:45 PM PST by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: Olog-hai
"...The Orion spaceship is almost a carbon copy of the Apollo spacecraft."

Here's the Project Apollo patch/logo. See anything familiar?


6 posted on 01/24/2015 6:44:20 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Olog-hai

From the article:

DW: “Should we go back to the moon?”

Worden:”I see no value in going back to the moon. What will we go back for? To explore it some more? Do we need to explore it some more? I don’t think so. The moon is a very, very baby step on the way out.”

China considers Manned Moon Landing following breakthrough Chang’e-3 mission success
http://www.universetoday.com/107716/china-considers-manned-moon-landing-following-breakthrough-change-3-mission-success/

The People’s Daily reports that “Chinese aerospace researchers are working on setting up a lunar base,” based on a recent speech by Zhang Yuhua, deputy general director and deputy general designer of the Chang’e-3 probe system.


7 posted on 01/24/2015 6:56:13 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Olog-hai
We should develop the hardware to colonize the solar system and use the moon for practice runs.

8 posted on 01/24/2015 7:07:22 PM PST by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Interesting that the Apollo mission patch featured the constellation Orion. What on earth did that star group have to do with the moon landings?


9 posted on 01/24/2015 7:12:31 PM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Olog-hai
Nixon bowling photo: Nixon Bowling NixonBowling.jpg

Gave us the EPA, OSHA, and the Space Shuttle. He also killed the last 3 Apollo missions.

10 posted on 01/24/2015 7:15:06 PM PST by Snickering Hound
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To: Snickering Hound

You forgot affirmative action for ‘Hispanics’, floating the dollar, and wage/price controls in esponse to the 73 oil crisis.

Mr. Nixon was not Ronald Reagan....


11 posted on 01/24/2015 7:32:45 PM PST by Regulator
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To: Windflier

The space program to that point was filled with names out of Greco-Roman mythology. The myths of Apollo and Orion do significantly intertwine.


12 posted on 01/24/2015 8:22:58 PM PST by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Windflier

Only Richard Hoagland could answer that!


13 posted on 01/24/2015 8:31:02 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Regulator

Two of his Supreme Court picks turned out to be liberals. They were part of the majority that made abortion on demand the law of the land.


14 posted on 01/24/2015 8:35:16 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Olog-hai

“We took a step backwards back in the late 70s when they decided to build the space shuttle. That was, in my opinion, a mistake. The shuttle was a very complicated machine. It did some pretty unusual, clearly spectacular things, like launch vertically and land horizontally. But from a technical standpoint, we launched a 280,000 pound machine to carry 25,000 pounds up to space. To go to the International Space Station.”

The only mistake was not developing the Shuttle far enough. Unlike the Apollo and Apollo-based programs, the Shuttle could land more conventionally.

“If we had maintained the Saturn V as a launch vehicle, we would have put eight times as much into Earth’s orbit. What’s interesting to me is: We are going back to the Saturn V system for the future programs. The Orion spaceship is almost a carbon copy of the Apollo spacecraft.”

Throwing out the Shuttle completely and revisiting Apollo was the step backwards.


15 posted on 01/24/2015 8:56:37 PM PST by setha (It is past time for the United States to take back what the world took away.)
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To: Windflier
Interesting that the Apollo mission patch featured the constellation Orion. What on earth did that star group have to do with the moon landings?

And why was a moon landing project named for a SUN god?
16 posted on 01/24/2015 9:18:47 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: setha
Throwing out the Shuttle completely and revisiting Apollo was the step backwards.

Really? I guess you don't know much about aerodynamics then. An airplane is stupid for re-entry; all the wrong places get heated, as we saw well in 2003 when the shuttle broke up over TX, and in the X-15 program when Mike Adams got killed.

The best re-entry shape is a cone, a blunt lifting body. Thousands of missile research programs bore that out. But no, we had to have Buck Rogers in the mythical airplane-shaped spacecraft. It was stupid from the get-go, and that is an aerodynamic fact.

17 posted on 01/24/2015 10:18:22 PM PST by backwoods-engineer (Blog: www.BackwoodsEngineer.com)
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To: backwoods-engineer

There’s no need to be rude, though, with your comments.


18 posted on 01/24/2015 10:40:30 PM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: fishtank

“There’s no need to be rude, though, with your comments.”

Where was the “rude”?


19 posted on 01/25/2015 12:02:42 AM PST by GladesGuru (Islam Delenda Est. Because of what Islam is - and because of what Muslims do.)
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To: GladesGuru
Where was the “rude”?

Probably when he called the other guy's idea "stupid".

20 posted on 01/25/2015 1:30:44 AM PST by Steve0113
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