On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:18:21 -0500, in a place far, far away,
"jonathan" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:


"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...

Yes, right.

Back when George Bush was governor of Texas, he persuaded the Clinton
administration to cancel X-33, so that several years later, he could
arrange for the Columbia to be blown up, and then, after a couple more
years, issue a major contract to Lockheed for the crew module of the
new moon mission that resulted.



"Many viewed this vehicle as the latest bright hope for a single-stage-to-orbit
approach to human spaceflight-a concept that seems simple enough but has
eluded the U.S. for decades. The space agency also killed Orbital Sciences'
X-34 vehicle, seen by some observers as a more modest and realistic
approach to finding a new way to get astronauts aloft."

Many were clueless, like you.

"NASA administrator Daniel Goldin has acknowledged that the agency really
"had no choice," given the Bush administration's decision to clamp a
$14.5-billion limit on the agency's budget for FY02, leaving a $1-billion
shortfall in funding for the International Space Station."
http://www.aiaa.org/Aerospace/Articl...hiveIssueID=13

And the evidence that this was because the Bush administration wanted
to kill the nonsensical X-33 program to provide Lockheed with a lunar
program is...?