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Japanese Shuttle has Successful Test Flight

Posted by michael on from the copycat dept.

spacecomputer writes "First test flight of scaled-down version of Hope-X is a success! They have additional test flights in the coming week, but have no funding to proceed beyond the test stage."

2 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Frist Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Frist Post

  2. So Sad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    >I hadn't realized that US budget decisions had cut the ISS back to a skeleton crew.

    Since the 60's, our space record is a disaster. The Shuttle should have been done up as 2 seperate vehicles ; an initial jet powered lifter and a final small rocket powered compartment.Nixon got in on it and basterdized it. So it was slightly cheaper to build, but 10000x more expensive to luanch.
    Then came ISS. It was suppose to be cheap. Ideally, we would manufacture just several peices; a 6 way connector and simple tubes. Instead, the democrats (and NASA) got ahold of it and made sure that every state was involved for financial on-goings. The ISS while correct in initial design has become a budget monster.
    If Japan really wanted to get on track, they would learn that NASA and Politics do not mix. And the US shuttle is a wrong design (X-34 excluded). If a country really wanted into space
    1) build 2 cheap lifters so that one huals up people and the other hauls freight 2) Build a cheap ISS that is modular and has the same components being duplicated. By building several ISSs in orbit, you can actually avoid a lot of problems that we have with ISS. 3) finally build space freighter. One that is designed for transportation between moon/earth or mars/earth. Remember, it is freighter, not people hauler. There is a big difference in the 2.