On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 10:57:16 -0400, "Jeff Findley"
wrote:


And shuttle naysayers kept saying "one more accident will permanently ground
the shuttle". However, the shuttle is clearly flying post-Columbia, so
they've been proven wrong by history. In that case the shuttle fanboys were
right.

- The Shuttle fanboys didn't insist that STS-51L and STS-107 were
really successes. SpaceX fanboys did and amazing song and dance about
Flight No.2.

- The Shuttle fanboys could point at a record of 111 successes. Falcon
1 has never succeeded.

- The last rocket to go 0-for-3 was Delta III, which died because of
it. Before that, N-1 also went 0-for-3 and died. The Europa rocket
went 0-4 and vanished from the scene around the same time as N-1.

But this is SpaceX, so we're supposed to look the other way.

But the shuttle program is coming to an end and it's time to pick a new
horse to bet on. How will Ares I and V do with its billions in development
money compared to Space-X with its much more limited budget? Only time will
tell, but in the meantime, the EELV's keep on flying.

I liked the original Stick concept of 4-segments and SSME. Now that
Stick is 100% new, I say kill it and uprate Delta IV-H for a tenth of
the cost. If that is politically impossible, go with DIRECT and at
least give us a more robust and versatile launch vehicle than Ares I
or the behemoth (and still growing!) Ares V.

Brian