Project Dyna-Soar: Where we started to blow the Space Race

If Dyna-Soar and the Space Launching System had been completed, the United States would have had by 1965 a modern modular launch vehicle launching a reusable manned spaceplane -- something it now hopes to accomplish with the Delta IV / OSP by 2010. The nation could have been spared the false premise of the shuttle program and had a space station ferry in being by the beginning of the 1970's. It might even have been flying well into the 21st Century, while the Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle were consigned to the trash heaps of history.

I have always felt cheated that our Space ventures have produced such small results after such a fantastic beginning. The cancellation of Dyna-Soar and the premature ending of Lunar exploration have turned the Dreams of myself and millions of others into sour dust.

What we could have accomplished is unbearable to realize. What we have accomplished is a loss of hope, character and destiny. I was 10 years old when the Soviets started the Space Race and I gloried in our accomplishments.

I could hardly wait for the next steps. The Moon, then Mars, then... Politics entered Operational Decisions and... Well, you see the results.

Now, in the winter of my 50s, I am feel so disappointed at what we lost.

I have always felt cheated that our Space ventures have produced such small results after such a fantastic beginning. ... What we could have accomplished is unbearable to realize. What we have accomplished is a loss of hope, character and destiny. I was 10 years old when the Soviets started the Space Race and I gloried in our accomplishments.

Well, Samuel Langley spent $80K of 1900 taxpayer dollars to achieve heavier-than-air flight, and blamed his failure on insufficient funds. This month, North Carolina recognizes the bishop's boys from Ohio, who spent $1K of their own money. If you believe as I do in human destiny under God, that's grounds for hope. The day on Mars is just barely longer than the day on Earth -- and I view that as a divine invitation.

Now, in the winter of my 50s, I feel so disappointed at what we lost.

You and me both. Back in the late 70's, as an undergraduate in Aero & Astro at MIT, we were designing the follow-on to Dyna-Soar, Lunar mining stations using mass drivers for Lunar orbit insertion, and manufacturing plants in geosync - all using existing technology. The professors teaching the course were using the best of our designs to flesh out theirs - and were flying down to brief congress on these plans.

But even back then - before Shuttle even flew - our professors explained why Shuttle had to be replaced - based on costs per pound to LEO (Low Earth Orbit). At $10,000 per pound - none of the above was possible. We needed $300 per pound to make any development feasible. Now here it is 25 years later - and we have only gone backwards concerning launch costs...A national tragedy in slow motion.

http://www.deepcold.com/deepcold/dc_movies/dyna_dock_movie_big.html

Worked for NASA as a co-op in college and got to be part of Apollo 16, 17, Skylab, and first Skylab crew launch. Left there when the first Shuttle design proposals were making the rounds. There were some very intersting, totally reusable designs, but politics and money dictated that they find the 'cheapest' system. The Viet Nam war seemed to have the 'national will' pretty much in tatters at the time and no one wanted to hear about any big, new government projects.

Ended up back at KSC with McDonnell Douglas for 15 years and Boing 1 day. (just happened to be leaving on the day Boeing was taking over). The overall attitude in the shuttle program was vastly different from what I experienced with Apollo. Partly because I was older and partly because there was no strong sense of 'mission' beyond getting the bird up and back. That is to say, it was more space operations than space exploration. Within that, though, were the efforts at space utilization by some of the experimenters that spiced up the mix a bit.

Somebody 'underling' in the admistration had a hand in the Space Station, particularly the funding. We'd get so far in the design and he would say 'nope, too 'spensive' design a cheaper one'. Maybe it was his vast experience with inventing the internet that made him so smart. Of course that rendered all the work done and all the money spent to that point wasted. Later on those same people would complain about how much the total cost was.

Then there was the big effort to make the space program look like 'America'....without using quotas. Technical excellence was nolonger the prime concern, but race and gender were. (too many 'middle aged white guys' I think Director Golden said.)

I left before I had to watch bureaucratic ineptitude kill people again.

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