Friday, May 30, 2003
NASA'S FAILURE
An Epitaph for the Golden Age?
GlennReynolds.com spotted an article at Space Daily by Philip Chapman that very succinctly sums up the history of NASA's failure to deliver on the promise of the manned space program of my youth. This is as good a short summary of the background and current state of uselessness of NASA's manned space program as I've seen. It's a sad, sad story for people like me who grew up with the inspiration of the astronauts of the 1960s as the brightest spot in our childhood. But I've just about had it with NASA: The STS/ISS system is just plain broken and it may be that no amount of tinkering can fix it.
But maybe not. See this early post here at burchismo that discusses a proposal to automate the remaining three shuttles and this one from a couple of days ago about the possibility that ISS' stupid, highly-inclined orbit might be shifted equator-ward if the Russkies could start launching from Kourou in French Guiana. These two things together might be enough to raise the utility and lower the cost of the current mix of systems to the point where they can become a platform from which to do something more useful and with more potential for real growth in extraterrestrial infrastructure.
I'm sorry to say, though, that I have little hope of a radical solution like this being implemented. Too risky for the politicians and bureaucrats. Sad, sad, sad.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 9:09 PM
