Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA May Have to Buy Trips to Space

Posted by samzenpus on from the hey-buddy-can-you-spare-some-change dept.

MattSparkes writes "Budget cuts could leave NASA without a Space Shuttle replacement, and leave it reliant on private firms to get payloads into space. A similar scenario happened between 1975 and 1981 when NASA made the transition from Apollo to the Space Shuttle. It seems like a strange state of affairs when a magazine can take people to space, but the USA can't."

5 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Cost Effective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If its cheaper than the shuttle, and works just as well, why not?

  2. Sorry, but I had to by matr0x_x · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not to stir the pot, but think of how many space missions the war in Iraq could have paid for...

    --
    LINUX ONLINE POKER: Linux Poker
  3. NASA by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is despicable. We need to ensure that our astronauts are up in space. Down here, they try to kill each other.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  4. This isn't so strange by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The US government doesn't design and build trucks. If they need something shipped, they use a shipping company. If the president needs to make a speech, they buy microphones and pay TV stations. Space should be no different.

    This is just a small step toward the commercialization of space, and the use of off-the-shelf parts to get a job done. Perhaps one day, the Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace, and Scaled Composites will be bidding to deliver the next satellite into orbit around Mars.

  5. Magazine vs NASA by jonnythan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm no rocket scientist, but I think there's a big difference between:

    1) Sending someone on a sub-orbital flight at 62 miles altitude and;

    2) Bringing several working payloads into space, docking with a space station at 236 miles altitude, and performing orbital repairs on satellites at 355 miles altitude.

    It's not like NASA is so incompetent that some private firm is beating them at this whole space thing.