Spotted on http://hsf.nasa.gov/topics.php

I spotted this posting on http://hsf.nasa.gov/topics.php:

NASA should design its rockets so that they can launch
manned space craft built by the private sector. This
would encourage a larger private sector for space flight.
These manned space craft could be built by private companies,
universities, and advanced amateur aircraft builders.

This is the dumbest idea ever. This person has it completely backwards.
Plus this person is obviously ignorant of history. The space shuttle was
called STS because it was to be the one and only US Space Transportation
System. In this advertised role the shuttle failed miserably. Do we really
want to repeat that mistake twice?

The US already has several launch providers (dinosaurs and early mammals).
Why should NASA be in this market at all? In fact, it's barred by law from
competing in this market (this was put into place post-Challenger because it
became obvious to everyone involved that the US government was a very poor
substitute for a commercial launch provider).

Some argue that NASA should still build its own launch vehicles (i.e. Ares I
and Ares V), but I find the arguments for this position to be weak and
ineffective. EELV's exist now and can be adapted to launch Orion. Larger
launch vehicles could be built, if needed, by those same launch providers.

But even better would be to have NASA invest in developing in orbit
refueling technologies so that launch vehicle size is no longer a huge
constraint to launching a lunar mission. In orbit refueling would be a
paradigm changing technology.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon