Posted on 09/28/2005 12:37:01 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
I know there are FReepers who can refresh my memory. Isn't it true the only reason NASA went to the shuttle is that Congress ordered them to? And instead of liquid fueled boosters, Walter Mondale wanted the solid boosters that are made by his constituents?
"Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in."
What does he mean by this?
Is the ISS in too low an orbit and may fall?
I've noticed that too- you do a search once, it finds nothing, you try the search function again, it finds a few stories.
That's why I've stopped being so hard on the dupe posters - even if you check sometimes you can't tell if it actually was posted.
Nowhere is where we seem to be presently.
Yep. Handicapped minority lesbian democrat moonbat 'bout covers it.
"Maybe by 2050 we can launch a satellite that orbits the earth and goes "ping"."
Funny. A couple weeks ago, I posted a thread with a theme critical of the return to the moon scheme. I got hammered by a few space-junkie Freepers. Brace yourself.
That's right. Sometimes I can't find a thread when I know perfectly well it is there.
NASA actually had a pretty good, fairly coherent plan for the shuttle. The first person to have a hand in it was Nixons OMB director who decided to short the program. Then NASA had to get in bed with the Air Force to have enough political clout to get the thing through congress.
What resulted from that process wasn't worth doing, but it was all NASA had left. That is what happens when you are willing to take anything: You wind up with what other people want to give you rather than what you really need.
The plan was scrubbed in favor of what was done, and then we had Skylab as an after thought.
Had things been done right while the Saturn V was still around, we may have taken a different path and be on Mars now.
But the libs were whining (1970's) with a vengeance about all the money spent on space which could be spent defeating poverty and oppression right here at home. They are still whining, and space would have been a far more beneficial investment, imho.
"Can you imagine what the politics of picking who the first one to walk on the moon of that mission will be?"
No doubt it will be a one legged black trans-gender female.
"It was a mistake but no one knew it at the time."
I don't think that's true. Is it? I thought I heard there was a lot of internal criticism back then, but salesmanship and politics won out (as it always does in gvt programs).
Don't expect the next attempt to be any better.
it also makes the headline nisleading....
it also makes the headline misleading....
Ping? Nah... For a few billion more we can make it have uploadable ring tones.
After Apollo we should have kept going to the moon? Why?
This fellow's comments will be a downer for those who worked in and take pride in the programs for the past two decades.
I'm sorry if this upsets those at NASA whom have worked on these programs, but truth is truth and dening it serves nobody's purpose.
In all fairness it wasn't all a waste of time, a lot of good science came out of it and if negatives can be an example we have learned what not to do.
Billions and billions of wasted dollars.
If that's what it takes I'll swallow my pride and say thank you. If they build a nuclear launcher I'd carry her to the launch pad myself.
Triple?
Don't get me started....
From the limited amount I've read, I think it is because the orbit is low where there is some trace of atmosphere that causes drag which then requires more energy and more manovers to keep it in the orbit. A higher orbit, with less atmosphere would better. THe orbit was chosen because that's how far the shuttle could go. It's a low orbital vehicle. Even many of the satellites it carries need engines to be boosted to higher orbits.
Nobody looked at it with the pride of parenthood. More of a 'what the . . .'.
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