Hi Ceesco:

That some of these might come while the shuttle fleet is
being reviewed
seems like a non-event, or certainly an event made no more
remarkable by the
absence of shuttle flights.

At the risk of using an analogy from a different era, I would submit
that a large part of the psychological impact of Sputnik I was based on
timing. If the US had launched first, I doubt that the Russians'
beeping ball would have had such an impact as it did, especially given
the fact that Explorer I actually had scientific value.

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