Prsident Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program
CDQZ writes "US President George W Bush declared today that he had signed a rare presidential decree canceling any further expenditure of Federal funds on the US Space Shuttle program."
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We shall stand back in awe at this article from The Mysterious Past...
As for the "story" itself, I wouldn't particularly mind if it were true... but then again, I didn't RTFA.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
I think this paragraph gives it away:
During the press conference Bush told reporters, "I don't want to see another NASA administrator - appointed on my watch - left to justify a program to Congress based on lies, dis-information, half-truths and sexed up reports."
The way I see it, it's basically commentary on how the WMD reports and the failure to find any. There was a new report that came out a couple of days ago saying that our intelligence was, quote, "dead wrong." I think this is a reference to that report.
(at least, I hope...)
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
4/1 or not, actually cancelling the STS and redirecting the funds to the next gen SSTO would be a good decision.
I agree with the idea of cancelling the gov as well. As it stands, much of the gov has already cancelled itself anyway. They do nothing constructive. What we need to do is cancel their paychecks.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
I wish they really would cancel it!
That was my first thought, too, upon seeing this Slashdot post.
The shuttle is damn expensive to operate, as this guy points out.
The single biggest problem is, IMNSHO, is that the shuttle was designed three decades ago, and is still a first-generation vehicle. Sure, there have been upgrades, but there is one simple fact: We could build a better system right now.
We have experience. We have new technology. We have a long list of "lessons learned" from the shuttle. We have new partners in space exploration.
With these assets in mind, we could presumably devise a new reusable launch vehicle, hopefully one that reduces cost to less $1500 per kilogram to operate.
Wish I had more time to think about this, but unfortunately, Linear Algebra awaits...
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.