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Subscribe to RSS"No bucks, no Buck Rogers": That phrase, attributed to Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom, perfectly encapsulates the problem that NASA has faced for decades. Without the requisite money, there's no way America's space effort can do great things. The Augustine panel put its finger on the problem last year, but Rand Simberg writes in Popular Mechanics that the same thing is happening again. Congress is trying to low-ball the high frontier.
from:Popular Mechanics
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With every retrograde step taken by your political class, this British subject is minded of the Black Arrow debacle. Not to mention TSR2 and the Miles M.52. Perhaps the Russians have the right idea after all!
Those to whom it is not yet obvious that NASA is not the way to open the high frontier need to look at what is happening with the information technology multimillionares:
They're building launch vehicles, most intended to fly humans and all intended to scale up, successfully, on a budget less than 10% of what it would cost NASA to achieve similar infrastructure capabilities. This is clearly a "buy" rather than "make" decision for NASA.
What, then, does NASA "make"?
How about this:
Prize specifications funded by Congress.
That is proven to work fast and work economically.
Do'es my #17 Mon. Aug 2, 2010 10:02PM EDT entry need to be re-written or re-routed to this setting?