Jeff Findley ) wrote:
: "Rand Simberg" wrote in message
: ...
: My thoughts on whether or not to fly Shuttle, and the cult of
: astronaut worship:
:
: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...UxNjE5MjM1OTE=

: I think you're on the right track he

: What upset people so much about the deaths in Columbia,
: I think, was not that they died, but that they died in
: such a seemingly trivial yet expensive pursuit. They
: weren't exploring the universe-they were boring a multi-
: hundred-thousand-mile-long hole in the vacuum a couple
: hundred miles above the planet, with children's science-
: fair experiments. We were upset because space isn't
: important, and we considered the astronauts' lives more
: important than the mission. If they had been exploring
: another hostile, alien planet, and died, we would have
: been saddened, but not shocked - it happens in the
: movies all the time.

: It happens in history as well. We lost Grissom, White, and Chaffee on the
: ground, yet everyone was determined to fix the problems and move foreword
: with Apollo. They were heroes, pursuing the goal of landing a man on the
: moon in a race with the Soviets.

: For some reason, this generation seems to be rediscovering heroes. I'm sure
: 9/11 was a huge wake up call that helped start this movement. But today,
: astronauts are still regarded as heroes, but they certainly seem to lack a
: heroic goal. Going round and round in LEO isn't it. Even going back to the
: moon isn't it (been there, done that, thirty-seven years ago).

: My question is this, is it even possible for NASA to find a truly heroic
: goal for our heroic astronauts?

It begs the question of finding real value in ISS and not just using it as
a hotel and a life support center.

At least with HST we are getting science.

Eric

: Jeff
: --
: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
: little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
: safety"
: - B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)


: .