Free Republic

As any battlefield commander will tell you, getting troops to the fight can be as difficult as winning it. And for modern-day soldiers, the sites of conflict are so far-flung, and the political considerations of even flying over another country so complicated, that rapid entry has become nearly impossible. If a group of Marine Corps visionaries have their way, however, 30 years from now, Marines could touch down anywhere on the globe in less than two hours, without needing to negotiate passage through foreign airspace. The breathtaking efficiency of such a delivery system could change forever the way the U.S....

<p>A Russian Soyuz rocket launching a scientific satellite exploded half a minute after launch on Tuesday.</p> <p>It carried no crew, but it was of a similar type (though out of a different launch site) to the vehicle that delivers Russian cosmonauts (including paying space tourists, such as Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth) to the International Space Station. Had the finances worked out, teen-heartthrob Lance Bass would have been aboard one this month.</p>

<p>I got a response to last week's column from the office of Rep. David Weldon, R-Fla., specifically from his staffer Brendan Curry.</p> <p>He (and the congressman for whom he works) really is one of the good guys, if you're one of the many citizens (and voters) interested in a vibrant space program and getting into space yourself. But it shows how even the folks who sincerely want to make things happen inside the Beltway can often get into mind sets that continue to constrain us.</p>

<p>The generals always fight the last war, and NASA managers always design to the last disaster.</p> <p>They're proposing (as was the case with the ill-fated X-33 VentureStar program) that the new launch system be designed to be flown unpiloted, and have a separate, separable crew module when it has to carry people.</p>