September 20th 08, 09:31 PM
posted to sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,sci.space.policy,sci.space.station
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Shuttle program extension?
On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:04:27 -0400, in a place far, far away, "Greg D.
Moore \(Strider\)" made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:
"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:57:27 GMT, in a place far, far away, Brian
Thorn made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:
On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:26:00 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:
It has to be, because he doesn't have billions to pay for it. Using
Genesis as a baseline, it will be.
Right. So failure isn't a possibility then. Good to know.
I didn't say that. I just said that if it's built, it will be cheap,
and that there is good reason to think that it will be built, since
his prototypes have been successful.
I don't know... its a long way from a prototype to a real, operational
spacecraft. They've built Echo 1, but we need Telstar.
Prototype or not, Genesis II is a real, operational spacecraft, and
it's been operating for many months now.
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/genesis_II/
All it lacks, AFAIK, is ECLSS. Add that, scale it up, and you have a
space habitat. Add propulsion, and it can co-orbit with ISS. Bigelow
has already issued a $23M contract for that to Aerojet.
Wow. And this morning I had a great breakfast of toast, ham and eggs, if I
had only had some ham and eggs.
Glad to know it'll so simple and trivial.
I didn't say it was "simple and trivial." My only point is that it is
a lot simpler than an entry vehicle, and it doesn't have to cost
billions.
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