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Old October 31st 07, 01:00 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy,sci.space.station,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.taiwan
Jonathan
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Default ..New Space-Race to the Moon..History is (Tragically) Repeating Itself


"Damien Valentine" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 27, 8:06 pm, "Jonathan" wrote:
First Bush and his Vision to the moon, then Japan, India
and now China all gearing up to go back to the moon.
...The same reason for Apollo, we were in a ....military...race
with the Soviets.


On the other hand, what has humanity done in space since the end of
the Cold War? Well...we've put up one-and-a-half space stations,
we've got a half-assed heavy booster (which wasn't too reliable to
start with; now it's apparently falling apart at the seams), and
occassionally we've got a billionaire renting some space on the half-
station for a few days.

I say bring on the new Space Race. At least something will happen.



China will be a democracy, and no longer a threat, long before
we have people stationed on the moon. But by then the
program will have spent itself into a committment like
the ISS. We're still building the ISS even though the
original purpose for it has been entirely abandoned.

The new purpose for the ISS, supporting the moon
shots, will also be abandoned too in time.
Leaving nothing really to show for all the effort.

Having military needs driving the civilian space
program is a contradiction, one is meant to
build, the other destroy.

We'll end up with a massively expensive program
that delivers about as much as the ISS.

Aa space station and moon base 'to nowhere'.

NASA could be do much more., we shouldn't
settle for whatever Lockheed and other
big friends of Bush/Cheney want.

NASA is a stocking stuffer for those guys.
Nothing more.