Posted on 10/09/2004 7:37:48 PM PDT by KevinDavis
"This is the true frontier of transportation," said Marion Blakely, head of the US Federal Aviation Administration, when SpaceShipOne, designed, built and flown by American private citizens, flew into space for the second time in two weeks and won the US$10 million Ansari-X prize. Then Richard Branson of Virgin enterprises made a deal with Mojave Aerospace Venture, the team headed by Burt Rutan and funded by Paul Allen, billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, to develop a fleet of larger spacecraft based on Rutan's design and start commercial space flights in 2007-8.
It took us all back to the romantic early years of aviation, when thrusting entrepreneurs teamed up with iconoclastic engineers and bold pilots to create whole new technologies in a weather-beaten hangar. There we were once again, at the airstrip out in the desert, watching mavericks mould our future. It was a great achievement, redolent of the 1930s and yet relevant to the future-and then Brian Binnie had to go and ruin it.
(Excerpt) Read more at trinidadexpress.com ...
"The problem is not the fact of American nationalism-a huge surge of nationalist sentiment was inevitable in the United States after the appalling events of 9/11-but the in-your-face coarseness with which it is increasingly being expressed. A psychologist might wonder how much this is driven by the need to deny the inevitable relative decline in America's power over the coming two or three decades, as first the Chinese economy and then the Indian grow to rival the US economy in size. In any event, triumphalism has become a normal mode of expression right across the US political and media spectrum in the past few years."
This guy is full of it.
AMERICA! EFF, YEAH!!!!
"This guy is full of it"
Yes, but, more importantly, it's an overt display to hide the real resaon.............Jealousy!
Goooooooooooo.....Burt!
Well I for one am proud to live in a country where dreamers and entrepreneurs can do what they did in the mojave desert. What is so wrong with being proud of that? I'm glad I'm not a european who lives on a decaying continent whos governments stiffle the lives, dreams, creativity and entrepreurial spirit of their people. I for one am proud that we are different then the rest of the "developed" world and share a common spirit and bond with our countrymen and are proud to be American's! It has served us well over the last two centuries.
> I don't know what the hell his problem is...
It's right there in the first sentence:
"... SpaceShipOne, designed, built and flown by American
private citizens ..."
This "London-based independent journalist" evidently
would have preferred that the prize be won by the
nationals of some other country.
And it could have been - the contest was open world-wide -
but it wasn't.
The ironic thing is that the SS1 success is both grand
and embarassing for the US. Yes, US citizens did it,
but they also did their whole program, with three
launches, for less than the incremental cost of one
Space Shuttle launch, and probably less than the
adjusted program costs of the X-15.
Next the Amish!
NASA could duplicate SS1 for 10 times the cost
Stick to rum and cigars, Gwynne.
This is why most of the space program should be turned over to private business. The government should not be involved much at all except for creating the overall goal. For example, we want a moon base? Offer a corporation a $10 billion prize for the first to create one that functions within certain parameters. Same with a mars mission. Turn it over to private business and entrepreneurs. Those that are willing to take some risks and think innovatively. Look, this is not a knock against NASA, it has done some great things, and continues to do so from time to time, however, being a bureaucratic mess, it is massively inefficient.
Look at SpaceShipOne, what an incredible success story, because they could make a business case for it, and they had innovators who were willing to take chances. I loved the Discovery Channel show on the program. When designing the ship they decided they needed some hand holds so Rutan sent an engineer to the junkyard to get some off of old cars "because they make some pretty good ones". NASA probably would have spent $1 million to put 10 engineers on it, do 100 tests and develop the most ergonomically perfect handhold ever designed, let alone whether it is necessary. Just put a $5 handhold on there!
This guy doesn't know much about Americans does he?
It could be that our love of country is why we pull other countries out of trouble instead of them helping us out.
When Americans do something exceptional they boast about it and thank God for it. That's something a modern European doesn't get, so they watch our achievements and write articles whining about our nationalism.
> This "London-based independent journalist" evidently
would have preferred that the prize be won by the
nationals of some other country. And it could have been ...
Indeed. Several non-US groups are reasonably close, including Da Vinci of Canada. Personally I hope the Canadian Arrow team is successful. Of all the designs, theirs is the one that screams "rocketship" the loudest.
> The government should not be involved much at all except for creating the overall goal.
Well, that and basic research, NACA-style. The government can afford to spend millions developing some new technology - a new propulsion system, for example - that private industry would not dare risk.
Volatile mix of envy, jealousy, and frustration.
There was a time when European engineers and invetors in various countries WOULD compete with one another in making achievements. The philospohies they live by nowadays don't promote competition and invention.
Once again, a uro-peon doesn't like being second to Americans. How's it feel to sleep under an AMERICAN moon? It ain't your flag standing on the surface.
to deny the inevitable relative decline in America's power over the coming two or three decades, as first the Chinese economy and then the Indian grow to rival the US economy in size
The U.S., like every other country in history, will decline and eventually fall (a process that is being hurried along by adopting just the sort of social beliefs Mr. Dyer holds) but it takes a sick mind, twisted by all consuming hate, for a westerner to gloat over the prospect of China becoming the world's most powerful nation.
Not a damn thing, Gwynne. Not a damn thing, other than 'attaboy.' But I do get a nice snapshot of your own point-of-view from your question....
> Several non-US groups are reasonably close,
> including Da Vinci of Canada.
And a couple of these teams have had some spectacular
test failures. With the competition now over, and the
deadline rendered moot, I'd like to think that the
alternative designs will now take some extra time to
stay safe.
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