Reconsideration

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:20:32 -0400, in a place far, far away, Pat
Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

Jorge R. Frank wrote:

Umm, maybe you haven't realized it yet, but that was Rand's April Fools
post.



Ah, he got me fair and square on that one! I thought the whole
"Conversion On The Road To Damascus" scenario was a bit unlikely, but
considered he might have gotten a job with a major aerospace firm, and
was now going to start writing propaganda pieces for them.

Actually, I am making my living right now off a major aerospace firm,
though as a consultant. It's in fact not in my financial interest for
CEV to die, but I still think that it's a misbegotten program.

Rand Simberg wrote:

Actually, I am making my living right now off a major aerospace firm,
though as a consultant. It's in fact not in my financial interest for
CEV to die, but I still think that it's a misbegotten program.



I think the odds of CEV ever getting built and heading Moonwards are
fairly slim.
We are running one hell of a deficit, and NASA looks like a juicy target
when budget cuts come along.
The scenario I think NASA should watch out for is losing a Shuttle on
one of its few last flights- the reaction to that would be so severe
that it might pretty well annihilate the agency.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:

I think the odds of CEV ever getting built and heading Moonwards are
fairly slim.
We are running one hell of a deficit, and NASA looks like a juicy target
when budget cuts come along.

At one time I thought the book I'm working on would have a chapter on
VSE/ESAS. In the event it's just a few pages, because try as I might I
can't believe that (or a lot of other discretionary spending) will
surviving the fiscal hangover that's coming well before RttMoon.

This isn't a partisan shot; it's arithmetic, as surely as when high
hopes for post-Apollo withered under Democrats in 1967-1968.