The Space Shuttle: A Horizon Guide

kinda cheap – a cut-up of all the other shuttle-related bbc docs out there… I recognised some “Miracle in Orbit” or the earlier “New Star in Orbit”, some of the space-station stuff from “Red Star in Orbit”, the Challenger O-Ring thingy also got a whole documentary on its own etc…

Nothing new here. But I guess it was very easy on the budget.

The piece of junk has finally been put out of it’s misery. It was screwed up from the beginning nickel and dime to death like the Hubble was nearly was NASA should made two shuttles a unman cargo vehicle and a maned passenger vehicle for ten to twenty passenger plus crew. Then to make things worst add bad management and not constructing the shuttle all in Florida which might have prevented the O ring problem since the solid fuel boosters would made in one piece instead of sections the new unman military craft is what the space shuttle should have been but as we all know the military gets the good stuff. As for the civilian they get the left overs. Which is why NASA for the last forty years has been doing a dog and pony show throwing the country’s money to the wind what a wast and a shame.

Wow man, I agree with you but that was a little harsh I think. You have to admit NASA has made some awesomely huge yet simply avoided mistakes. Things that seem like common sense got somehow twisted and distorted by their bureaucratic infrastructure and it makes them appear simple and careless. I think even NASA will admit this but, they have also redeemed themselves and learned hard earned lessons that will benefit us in the future. All I am saying is I can see how people feel this way, even if it isn’t justified in my opinion once you really study what happened.

What concerns me is that NASA will be privately operated in the near future. This means it will be a business whose main objective of course is to make a profit. We all know that common sense, environmental concerns, long term sustainability, etc. is often abandoned in the name of more profit. The very nature of what NASA does makes it a very complicated business model with so many different angles that could be exploited and such huge capitol needed, it just seems inevitable that it will become more corrupted and less efficient. I really hope I am wrong though, cause it seems the only way to move forward with it. The government simply can’t afford it anymore and it must continue of we have any hope of a long term future for our species or gaining the answers to the questions that have defined us since we have been able to think.

When the Wright brothers flew for the first time the world rejoiced,.. yet behind that flight was over 30 designs that did not fly. Success is predicated upon the ability to learn from your errors. The accomplishments and failures of NASA are inline with this process.

Is it easier to create a great tasting candy bar, or land a probe on the surface of Titan and send back pics of that primordial world.

I think that would have been a hard sell in the time Kennedy was president. The government had already built such a consensus in this country that communism was evil and Russia was our enemy, people would have freaked if Kennedy was like o.k. now we can combine our space programs. Plus he had built the space program up to be some kind of symbol of American progress and ability and hyped the space race idea. I think it would have been great if he could have done it, if it saved money and helped build a relationship between our countries, but their would have been so much resistance from congress, the public, and a lot of people in NASA- I just don’t think he could have ever have gotten it done even if Khrushchev did agree.

Or is that what you are suggesting- that they killed him because he was trying to make peace with Russia? You may be right, but I think his stance on Vietnam had something to do with it as well- among other things. He had openly said he would end the CIA’s mini wars and covert actions, that we would change our policy in Vietnam, he had went after the mafia and organized crime, had the whole Cuba thing going on, etc. It makes it hard to guess who all might have been involved. In fact the only one you can reasonably say is probably innocent is Oswald, that’s sad man.