Posted on 02/01/2003 3:16:20 PM PST by sonofatpatcher2
French astronaut says Columbia should no longer have been used
PARIS (AFP) Feb 01, 2003
A French astronaut who took part in an earlier US shuttle mission and has criticised current space programmes said Saturday the shuttle Columbia which disintegrated should have been out of use long ago. Patrick Baudry said on French television he was "up in arms" over the disaster.
"I think the shuttle should have been taken out of use long ago," Baudry said: "It's a magnificent machine that the Americans developed. But extremely dangerous."
The Frenchman charged that the Columbia was limited in its capacity, and yet had to serve the International Space Station (ISS) "about which nobody knows exactly what it's for and which I personally don't think really serves much purpose."
Baudry, a former fighter pilot, was a cosmonaut with a Soviet team aboard a Soviet spacecraft in the first French venture into space in 1982.
He later undertook a mission aboard the American space shuttle Discovery
There should have a long time ago been "higher-performance spacecraft in operation for more ambitious missions, with a more constructive scientific aim....and above all bearers of human dreams," Baudry suggested.
In a book published in 2001 called "The Incomplete Space Dream," Baudry complained that 40 years after pioneer Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin first ventured into space, no real prospect had yet opened up for the further development of man's programme in space.
Another French astronaut Michel Tognini, veteran of an earlier flight by the Columbia space shuttle which disintegrated Saturday with loss of seven lives, said the latest tragedy was perhaps greater even than that of the Challenger shuttle 17 years ago.
The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, 74 seconds after takeoff with six crew and one passenger-observer, all of whom perished.
"It's perhaps an even greater tragedy than Challenger, especially for me, it affects me particularly because three of those aboard were in my training class of 1995," Tognini said on French television.
"And it was Columbia I was aboard for my space flight in 1999," he added.
"Today we can only sympathise, whether we are American, European, Russian, or an international partner, everybody is truly saddened by this accident."
French astronaut Philippe Perrin, who took part in a mission aboard the American shuttle Endeavour last year, paid tribute to what he called "the extraordinary team" that died Saturday.
"I had the great pleasure of meeting them, especially pilot Rick Husband," said Perrin, who works at the French space agency CNES at Toulouse.
"For me it's a personal drama," he said of Saturday's catastrophe: "But for the United States it's a national drama," he said.
All rights reserved. © 2003 Agence France-Presse.
"I think the shuttle should have been taken out of use long ago," Baudry said: "It's a magnificent machine that the Americans developed. But extremely dangerous."
The Frenchman charged that the Columbia was limited in its capacity, and yet had to serve the International Space Station (ISS) "about which nobody knows exactly what it's for and which I personally don't think really serves much purpose." A French astronaut who took part in an earlier US shuttle mission and has criticised current space programmes said Saturday the shuttle Columbia which disintegrated should have been out of use long ago. Patrick Baudry said on French television he was "up in arms" over the disaster.
"I think the shuttle should have been taken out of use long ago," Baudry said: "It's a magnificent machine that the Americans developed. But extremely dangerous."
The Frenchman charged that the Columbia was limited in its capacity, and yet had to serve the International Space Station (ISS) "about which nobody knows exactly what it's for and which I personally don't think really serves much purpose."
"I think the shuttle should have been taken out of use long ago," Baudry said: "It's a magnificent machine that the Americans developed. But extremely dangerous."
The Frenchman charged that the Columbia was limited in its capacity, and yet had to serve the International Space Station (ISS) "about which nobody knows exactly what it's for and which I personally don't think really serves much purpose."
The French! Sorry, but this just set me off!
Regards, Ivan
This here is enough for me to stop reading.
Other reports I have seen said Columbia did not, in fact, service the ISS, only the other three shuttles go that high.
No reason to get upset.
It's obvious that he's simply an advocate of newer, more sophisticated designs and more exotic missions.
Yes we can use the French Shuttle "Marshall Petain" powered by insipid wine and made of cheese.
Axis of Weasels is appropriate.
No matter. If the Chinese succeed with their plans to put people in space and perhaps the moon again, we'll see real quickly a massive reinvestment in space technology by the US. We always need a little competition to get our interest.
I am all for space exploration. I say spend 100 Billion a year on it. Get back to the Moon. Get to Mars. The asteriods. Colonize the Moon and Mars, mine the riches of the astroids. And, YES, build more of those Glorified Mirs
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