More than hindsight, we need foresight to go on (Buzz Aldrin's NASA/Columbia Shuttle editorial)

"If it worked for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, it can work for a shuttle escape capsule. IIRC they used a series of timed parachutes starting with some very small ones to decelerate the thing."

The capsules slowed down by turning speed into heat, just link the space shuttle. Parachutes did not deploy until the capsule had slowed (yes, slowed) to terminal velocity. I am not sure how fast the capsules were going when the first drogue parachutes deployed, but one can rest assured it was much slower than 12,500 MPH.

And it would be very, very difficult to separate a capsule from an airplane flying at 12,500 MPH.

There are many other places to put our money and effort right now, rather than reengineering a 30 year old design. Apollo was an idea on the back of a napkin in 1961, it flew in 1968, and landed on the moon in 1969.

I believe we could build a small, reusable capsule or lifting body that could carry 4-6 people atop an expendable Delta IV rocket within 5 years. A small vehicle could use titanium or other materials instead of the tiles for heat shielding.

We then would only have to use the shuttle for lofting big loads to the ISS. We could even modify the shuttle to fly unmanned for most flights. To gain better economics from the shuttle, we could build an unmanned, disposable cargo carrier to use the existing shuttle solid boosters, external tank, and assembly and launch facilities. This would give us a lifting capability near that of the Saturn V, which we would need for future Moon or Mars missions.

He didn't show the Challenger astronauts any disrespect

I didn't mean to suggest that he did.

You are an outsider. On this issue at least, his opinion is worth much; yours is worth squat.

I dunno. Buzz Aldrin spent his life serving his country in risky and demanding ways. From his perspective, the dangers and demands he and his fellow astronauts faced over and over again may have seemed like a case of "just doing their duty."

I did my duty with the 82d for three years, playing with mortars & being pushed out a plane every now and then. Based on my experience in the field of "doing one's duty" I believe what BA and the rest of the astronaut corps have done, and continue to do, is much more demanding, dangerous, and admirable than a 19 year old punk kid doing his duty by falling out a plane & sleeping in mud.

I did not mean to show disrespect to BA, nor did I mean to suggest he was being disrespectful to the crew. I did mean to say that to me, and I suspect many others, what these people do goes way, way beyond merely doing one's duty.

I'm sorry my earlier post did not make that clear.

The astronauts I've talked with saw no merit in a space station as a means of getting us deeper into space. It has been a financial drain against other space projects though including moving to a next generation of reusable orbiting vehicles and deeper manned space exploration. It's now been 30 years since when went to the moon.

None of them would have believed that would be as far as we ventured in 30 years hence.

I see what you mean about 7:53. There is the red/orange/yellow rating that the other radars showed (I would assume the colors would tend to the same values and I have seen shots from Dallas, Austin, Houston, and one other city).

Since the spacing is 10minute snapshots and at such a distance, it doesn't give me a good enough image to comment further, but I appreciate the link.

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