"snidely" wrote:


Derek Lyons wrote:
[...]
Two out of six (?) Soyuz-TMA flights have now had significant
problems. There have been no calls for investigations, no musings on
the problems the Soviets may be having with training, software
developments, or QA. Prima facie evidence that the all-singing
mentality is deeply ingrained.

Well, I call for Soyuz investigations just as often as I call for
Shuttle investigations, so I'm entirely consistent.

Not in these groups you don't. (Not unless you are JimO or rk posting
under another name.)

Also, there is a self-selection process in these news groups, in that
the majority of readers are from the US, with a large population of
other "western" countries (including Australia). This means that we
don't have a large population of Hallerski's and Doeski's to provide
the negative voice.

Utter bull****. That the majority of the posters are 'western' does
nothing to prevent a proper and open eyed examination of the history
of Soyuz. It's equally bull**** that bBo and Doe provide anything
other than noise.

We do, however, have Jim Oberg's insights, and we have spent a lot of
time discussing the problems with programs that used capsules (usually
in s.s.h).

We've spent a lot of time discussing the details of the problems.
We've spent zero time discussing the implications of those problems.

I lean to a capsule these days not because I think capsules are
perfect, or because I am deluded they have a flawless record. I don't
think they are as beautiful as the Shuttle, and they certainly don't do
much (in any design I can refer to) for handling downmass. My vote
switched because wings make reentry a hard problem. Once we have
progressed to where we can do wings and still have a good reentry
solution, then I expect the new designs to reflect that, and for us to
be able to do more than we can now.

And how exactly do we progress to 'doing wings and having a reentry
solution' unless we *do wings in the first place*?

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL