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To: mdittmar
Unfortunately true, and also nicknamed the “disintegrating totem pole” approach to space exploration. The artist renditions of the new system look a lot like our rockets and capsules from the 1960ies.
123 posted on 08/20/2007 6:31:15 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: Truth29; mdittmar
Unfortunately true, and also nicknamed the “disintegrating totem pole” approach to space exploration. The artist renditions of the new system look a lot like our rockets and capsules from the 1960ies.

Indeed they do. I recently took a behind-the-scenes VIP tour of the Space Center here in Houston, and they were passing around big pix of the new rig. I was way surprised.

BTW, ever seen a Saturn V rocket up close? I stepped into the building where they have one displayed on its side, and it took my breath away. Literally. It's MASSIVE.

As we were making our way around NASA, seeing how dated everything is, it occurred to me that we really haven't done ANYTHING noteworthy to advance manned space flight since the shuttle came online. And the shuttles now look very very tired. One more tidbit of trivia: When astronauts enter commands into the shuttle's flight computer, they do so in HEX, using a computer and software designed in the 60s. Because it's so difficult and error-prone to work in hex, every command they enter shows up on a screen (called a scratch pad) in mission control, so it can be checked and confirmed before they press Enter.

MM (in TX)

127 posted on 08/20/2007 2:27:16 PM PDT by MississippiMan (Behold now behemoth...he moves his tail like a cedar. Job 40:17)
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