"Scott Lowther" wrote in message
news
Jeff Findley wrote:
Sending a few NASA astronauts to the moon won't make us any more of a
spacefaring nation than Apollo did


And you base this on...

The fact that only a few NASA astronauts (and perhaps astronauts from other
government sponsored organizations) will be allowed to go to the moon. Also
my belief that the stick and the SDHLV will be used by no one but NASA.
That makes NASA an organization that engages in manned spaceflight, but it
doesn't make the US anymore of a spacefaring nation than we are today or
have been in the past.

In order for the US to truly become a spacefaring nation, there has to be
more than a few NASA astronauts who go into space. The US needs to work on
sending citizens into space on their own dime. You do that by helping the
startups as NACA helped the US aircraft industry.

Jeff
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