Re: OT NASA death glider. truly unbelievable

In article <010820050842245295%bush@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bush in 2008 <bush@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I haven't heard any claims of not having enough money to fund this
>mission, have you? Got a link? All I heard prior to launch was how
>confident the lead engineers were that the problems of the earlier
>Columbia disaster were solved. We all knew what the problem was, so
>it's not like they had to spend millions trying to figure it out.
>NASA's (and therefore America's) reputation is on the line here. The
>Fed knows this, so had NASA asked for more money, they would have
>gotten it. If they have two disasters in a row, the shuttle program
>will definitely end, and maybe even NASA entirely. There are already
>many, myself included, who think that space exploration should be
>privatized. And now that there are possible problems, have you heard
>what the backup plan is? If necessary, they might send the Atlantis up
>to rescue the Discovery crew. If funding is an issue, how do they have
>enough for two shuttle missions, but not just one?


NASA won't get more money if they ask for it. If they do, it won't be enough
more to make a difference. NASA is essentially cutting all R&D in order to
tread water at the moment. Bush would like to go to Mars and have a lunar
base (so he says) and yet he's not willing to pay for it.


As for the rest of your post, there's a lot to address there. The shuttle
program probably should end, but the shuttle and ISS are not all there is
to NASA, despite the fact that NASA spends like it. Also, privatizing space
exploration will go nowhere because of the huge sums of money involved versus
the minimal rewards. It's one thing for Paul Allen to lose millions to get
a person into LEO and quite another to do the sorts of things that NASA has
been doing.


Dimitri

.

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