Posted on 07/18/2006 5:44:08 PM PDT by KevinDavis
The July 12th launch on a Russian Dnepr (SS-18) rocket of Bigelow Aerospace’s experimental Genesis module is another step in the ongoing evolution of the space tourism industry. One has to give the Russians credit for turning what were once their most feared ICBMs into moderate to low-cost space launch vehicles. The Genesis module was delivered into the right orbit with an accuracy of about 400 meters, which suggests that the old US estimate of the SS-18’s accuracy was correct. It seems that the launch took place from an operational silo; the implications of this are a subject for a future article.
The most important aspect of this so-far-successful mission is that it shows that the space tourism industry is not only developing vehicles for suborbital and eventually orbital flight, but that future space tourists will have a place to stay when they get up there. Actually having an experimental module on orbit is essential in order to show investors that this industry is going to be in business for a long time to come.
This is critical because, between its first flight in 1981 and its first docking with the Russian Mir space station in 1995, the shuttle was reproached for simply going around and around the Earth. While this ignored the useful work that was accomplished, there was an element of truth to the critique.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespacereview.com ...
Khan: "I've done worse than kill you...I've hurt you.
And I intend to go on hurting you.
I will leave you the way you left me...they way you left her....
marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet...
BURIED ALIVE....BURIED ALIVE"
Kirk: KHAN!!! KHAN!!!
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