[DoughtyOne]

This is 2003. What NASA admits here is that an OSP won't be operational until 2010 to 2012. They want to take a year and a half to even decide what plane to persue.

I'd like to view this as positive. Instead I see it as another dropped football.

Let's recall that in 1988 the SSTO was proposed to be in test phase by 1990. In 1990 it was supposed to be in test phase by 1993. In 1997 it was supposed to be in test phase by 2000. Now they are saying "something???" will be test phase by something like 4.5 years from now.

Frankly I don't think NASA has the capability to drive this program. They should set up a consortium of Lockheed, Boeing and other corporations to drive a SSTO development design and construction phase, then get out of the way. Other than that, NASA is just screwing around one more time. And that is pathetic.

[ArrogantBustard]

The Challenger disaster didn't just kill seven astronauts and destroy millions of dollars worth of equipment. It ripped the guts out of NASA. It is no longer the organisation the put men on the Moon. It's no longer even the organisation that designed and built the Shuttles. It's the organisation that can't send an unmanned probe to Mars, because of stupid screw-ups. They returned to the original insignia, but not the original spirit. Sad, really.