[Ophiucus]

They choose to use sub-par materials inorder to be politically correct. Get it? They choose political correctness over getting the job done, because they really don't care about getting the job done.

Try again. NASA was forced to change by the Clinton administration at Algore's direct insistance that they change to the enviro-safe foam.

Get your fact right's when you heap scorn and refrain from degrading people who suffered in that tragedy. NASA works astonishingly hard to maintain safety in the face of budget cuts from narrow minded opinions who don't see the value in the future.

To accuse those men and women of allowing that accident to occur because they didn't want to get the job done is OBSCENE

You are disgusting. Shame on you.

[Mark was here]

And finally to kill this thread off.. I think a mission to Mars is unfeasible and unaffordable and therefore the money that would be spent is best spent by the people who actually earned it and not sent to Washington in the first place.

The culture of NASA is not up to the task. Allowing Al Gore to make engineering decisions says it all. NASA is not going to change, and as the budget gets tighter, NASA will be under more pressure to appease the Al Gores of the world, making the goals even more unattainable.

Best to nip this beastly idea in the bud, not because one is against innovation, but because one is for some budgetary sanity.