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Space Shuttle launch: 5/15/05!
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Balaam Xumucane: [QB] I should qualify the below by telling you that I'm a big proponent of the space program. (No, but, like, big. I weigh in at 290.) So NASA has a bunch of really talented engineers and specialists all working to make this really incredible thing happen. But the fact of the matter is manned spaceflight is A) profoundly complicated, B) very expensive and C) REALLY dangerous. It's incredible when it works even once. These engineers and specialists work very hard to ensure the safety of the astronauts and the vehicles, but you can't escape the fact that you are strapping these brave folks to gigantic canisters of explosives, hurling them through the sky into an incredibly toxic, hostile environment where they do their astronaut thing and then bringing them burning back down through miles of atmosphere to land on the ground again. There are going to be complications. I'm not trying to make light of the tradgedy of the loses of Challenger and Columbia. But this is a comparatively new science and we're going to make some mistakes. It is unrealistic to expect this to be 100% safe yet. Two accidents in 107 flights is a pretty good record considering. We're going to learn from those accidents. We're going to adapt and get better. At some point that's going to mean a new shuttle design. But not yet. It's true our shuttle fleet is much less efficient than we originally thought. As it is, a large portion of this re-usable vehicle is replaced and extensively inspected for each launch. All part of making future flights more safe. I don't think it's time to pitch it in the dumpster just yet. We've got a lot invested and we still have a lot more to learn. I'm glad we're going back up. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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