On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 17:42:14 CST, in a place far, far away, "Dr. O"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such
a way as to indicate that:


"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
.. .
That's the title of my latest column at Tech Central Station, in which
I discuss why the economics of OSP make no sense.

http://www.techcentralstation.com/091903E.html


Let's be reasonable: there isn't any economic sense in human spaceflight, at
least not the way we are doing it now. Everyone knows that the OSP won't be
significantly cheaper (although it may be *more* expensive, as your article
points out) than the current Shuttle. The drive to replace the Shuttle is
largely based on subjective notions about safety and the misguided belief
that anything new must be better.

Basically, NASA does not want human spacelfight to become economically
viable since by doing this, it will have shot itself in the head. Therefore
I think that Congressional pressure is needed to change NASA's goal: to
develop technology to make access to space economically viable.

Actually, it doesn't even need to do that, at least any more than it's
already doing. It just needs to be a good customer.

--
simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole)
interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

"Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..."
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