(Andre Lieven) wrote in
:


"Jorge R. Frank" ) writes:
(Andre Lieven) wrote in
:

Cardman ) writes:
On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 20:20:49 -0400, John Doe wrote:

The NASA shuttle may be grounded, but as of now, there are still
plans to make it fly.

NASA has little choice in that. Congress would not allow them to
cancel the only US manned space launch system, until a replacement
system is available.

They had no problem with ending Apollo in 1975, when Columbia's
first flight was expected to be four years later...

And managed to destroy a good percentage of the US operational
experience base in human spaceflight in the process. Remember,
experience resides in individuals, not institutions.

Sure, but is six years that big a deal, when The Next Thing is being
worked on ( As it was in 1975-1981 ) and shows promise of really
opening up the astro flight rates ?

I think it was more damaging than most people would admit at the time. The
NASA critics who harp on NASA's lack of institutional memory and inability
to learn from its mistakes should take a good hard look at that period.

I would hope they learned from that mistake, but sadly I would not be
surprised if they did not.

True enough, but as funding is in the hands of the politicians, thats
not an issue one can really fault NASA for.

Right. By "they" I mean Congress and the Nixon/Ford administrations, not
NASA.


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JRF

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