[Paul Ross]

Sigh. NASA continues to fritter away time and money.

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[DoughtyOne]

Following the model of all problem government agencies, look for NASA to be renamed, duties diversified under several subtitles and the whole mess declared cured.

Hey it worked for the INS. All problems with illegal immigration and problematic immigration from terrorist states have been resolved.

[Paul Ross]

Ping.

[AndrewC]

Hmm. Are we to cede our technological advantage? Or was it illusionary all along. I kinda figured "American" would be spoken on Mars someday, but maybe it will be French.

 

 

 

 

 

NOT!

[yankeedame]

Once again, NASA has proposed to develop a replacement for the troubled Space Shuttle. This year's project goes by the ungrammatical moniker "Orbital Space Plane". An interim version of OSP called the CRV (Crew Rescue Vehicle) to ...

Cheeze louise! "Orbital Space Plane"?? "Crew Rescue Vehicle"?? This stuff sounds like it comes straight off Thunderbirds Are Go!....and the mental image that goes with it.

Look, you pencil necks at NASA, like or not PR is the name of the game- its how you get money, support, backing, you name it. Get yourself a top notch PR firm. Have them polish up your image - big time - and, for the love of pete, get better names for your goods and services!

[KellyAdmirer]

NASA should be abolished after evacuating the space station, the shuttles sent to the museums where they belong, and NASA's entire budget (INCLUDING the useless space probes that the Gang that Couldn't Keep Meters and Yards Straight keeps sending up) should be redirected toward encouraging and supporting private space initiatives.

I don't think the bureaucrats understand that our system of capitalism and free enterprise is our advantage over the dictatorships, communists and welfare states that challenge us. Trying to out-bureaucratize command economies like China is not a good idea in the long run.

Give a $10 billion prize to the first outfit that perfects a reusable launch vehicle with commercial prospects (tourism alone should suffice), and let's see how long it takes!

[snopercod]

The author of this piece made a number of serious errors of fact, and several omissions. I stopped reading about half way through.

The shuttle does have RTLS capability, although it's never been used.

The fact that two shuttles have been lost in 120 missions in no way predicts that we will lose a shuttle every 60 missions. Both losses were due to design deficiencies, one of which has been corrected, and the other will be.

The Titan IV has just as much lift capability as the shuttle. I don't know where this bozo got his numbers.

The author didn't even mention orbital planes at all (at least in the first half that I read) - he should have explained that AlGore killed the manned space program when he and Chernomyrdin insisted that the ISS be in the 51 degree orbit. We lose over 30% of our lift capablity by being forced to launch into that orbit. Not much we can do about it now, though...

[narby]

The bias in this article toward expendable rockets is sad.

Space flight was done with rockets for one reason only. Because the Vaughn Braun's of the world got the inspiration to ride rockets in the late 20's before high performance aircraft began to knock on the door of real space flight.

The ineficiences of lifting a vehicle straight up using thrust, totally using on-board oxidizers, when there's plenty of O2 in the air is staggeringly stupid.

The energy efficiency of launching horizontally using wings, and why not return the same way cause we've got the infrastructure, is the obvious answer.

A proposal I saw 20 years ago would still be better than all this junk. Take a 747 and stick a single Shuttle main engine on the tail. And put a small shuttle style vehicle on the roof powered by shuttle manuvering engines. Accelerate the 747 above the atmosphere (supersonic flight would only be necessary in extreemly high altitude, thin air), kick off the small orbiter and away you go. The entire project uses existing equipment, except for the orbiter.

I think this was a NASA proposal, so it had to have been at least marginally possible to pull off.

[The Duke]

One of my late granddad's favorite sayings was ... "Can't never could do nothin'!"

[Physicist]

Previous thread.

[Old Professer]

Kinda' makes you numb, I guess "you just can't get there from here."

[strela]

Bump for later reading. Thanks for posting this.

[waterstraat]

I really dont see where I am getting any benifit from manned space flight, or have ever gotten any benefit from any manned space flight except to fix the Hubble telescope. The Voyager space shots, which took photos of the planets were nice but other than that, very little benefit.

Space flight should be privatitized with companies allowed to mine other planets. Manned space flight should be paid for by those with an interest in it, and by those who will gain from it .

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!