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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kosh: [QB] [QUOTE] A NASA team inspected Enterprise a few years back at the Smithsonian... it's in suprisingly good condition, and they determined it could be used for parts if the need should arise, or even be modified to flight status if it was really needed. [/QUOTE]Enterprise should be made ready to fly at short notice, as a rescue plan. It wouldn't need any bells and whistles. Just enough to get into orbit, be able to dock with the space station, and come back. The news is saying that the station personel are good till June, and that the Russians can resupply them if nessessary. [QUOTE] I am opposed to NASA. I wasn't always this way. When I was younger, I was very supportive of our space program. However, over the past few years and having read countless articles on the program, I grown more hostile. I see an agency running on fumes. They are using antiquated machinery which can be bought on-line from E-Bay and other computer junkyard stores. Their facilites are degrading and their best people are leaving for lucrative jobs in the private sector. They no longer have the ability to build a second replacement shuttle for the knowledge and materials aren't available. I say very clearly that I blame the officials at NASA for their incompetence in running the program, and their incompetence has played a contributing factor in the loss of seven lives. (Accidents are the result of many factors. From the accidents I have read or heard about, one of the factors which contribute greatly to an accident is one of mismanagement of money. If X had put more money into this Y (thing, system, etc.), the accident wouldn't have occured.) I know many of you support space exploration. But, please take off the blinders. This program is in serious trouble and no amount of evasion by you will hide that fact. There are reports by the GAO and commissions which show an agency in desperate need of a fix. Would you be as forgiving if an airline company had let an airplane filled with passengers be destroyed by the stresses and pressures of the stratosphere if you knew the airline was in financial trouble and had sent the airplane knowng there might be potential dangers in flying an aging plane whose last overall was cancelled due to budgetary concerns? I wouldn't be, nor should you. [/QUOTE]This is just so much B.S. NASA's budget has gone up by 600,000,000 in each of the last two years. The best and brightest may not always go to NASA, but it is not easy to get into space. They can and do pick and chose Astronauts. Columbia was the first of the shuttles to reach space, and completed 27 missions, out of 28. That includes being strapped to a giant Hydrogen bomb and two boosters every trip, and following the very small corridor coming back, and falling out of the sky, evey time. It's a bigger wonder that there hasn't been more accidents. There have been so few because our people are very very good at what they do. We are the only ones to come close to making it work. The Russians never did get there version to go. Columbia had a major overhaul before this flight. The overhaul includes checking for metal fatigue, and updating electronics. It was as safe as it could be. The Shuttle is a wonder all by it's self. It gets shot into space like a rocket, acts as a space station in orbit, becomes a capsule on reentry, then a glider, or a brick with wings that has managed to land 111 times out of 112, not counting Challenger, which didn't get the chance to land. Anyone who expects space exploration to be safe is a fool. Maybe in 300 or so years, we'll have the technology to make it safe, but for right now, we have what we have. As for E-Bay, someone from NASA confirmed that at some point they had bought some things online that were better priced then what they could get by their regular connections. They did not buy "junk" but good useable parts. More power to them if they can do just as well, and save a few bucks. [QUOTE] I know many of you support space exploration. But, please take off the blinders. This program is in serious trouble and no amount of evasion by you will hide that fact. There are reports by the GAO and commissions which show an agency in desperate need of a fix. [/QUOTE]That may have been true in the post Challenger 80's, but I think they have solved a lot of those problems, under the current administration. There may stil be problems, but there are always problems to solve, and always will be. There are just to many benifits to stop now. Every time you use a calculator, or have a medical test, or use a fast, up to date computer, you can safly bet that the Space Program has contributed to that in one way or another. :cool: [/QB][/QUOTE]
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