Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
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Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
1–10 of 66 posts
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#2I know this has to be incredibly difficult for anyone who grew up during the space race, but there comes a point at which you must force yourself to let go of the old in the act of grasping at the future. Compared to the advance of technology within government organizations like NASA, the progress seen in private programs chasing the X PRIZE has been astounding. So long as the government keeps their 70s era technology in service, the role remains filled, and the young upstarts have less motivation to shoot for the stars.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#3Space? You can't get there from here.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#4>>[...] Russia's Soyuz capsules are the only taxis for the world's astronauts heading to low-Earth orbit, and each ticket to the ISS costs global space agencies between 50 and 60 million dollars each.I thought, the last shuttle starts we're costing over 1 billion. So with 7 crew members, thats more than twice the price paid to the Russians. Sure, they could raise that price in theory. But the Russians can't afford to run the ISS on their own.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#5It is terribly embarrassing. But the solution is not to keep the Shuttle program creaking along, but to work on a new program. At some point, legacy must be removed and a new platform created.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#6The title is completely misleading. Armstrong did not tell NASA "you're embarrassing". He told the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology that the demise of NASA is embarrassing. And it is. Regardless of the other crap our government spends money on, NASA is a fantastic investment, and has always provided a positive return to our economy.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#7Great, now try to tell people they should pay more taxes to support a bigger space program - be it carried out by NASA or private companies.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#8The shuttle was never flown the thousands of times it needed to have all the bugs worked out, NASA is an agency lost in middle-management hell, and you can't trust exploration to the politicians.
That being said, Armstrong has a point: none of what I've just said is new or is satisfactory as an excuse. The failure to manage these facts and manage our access to space -- perhaps by a privatization push a decade earlier -- is an embarrassment.
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#9The shuttle was never flown the thousands of times it needed to have all the bugs worked out, NASA is an agency lost in middle-management hell, and you can't trust exploration to the politicians. That being said, Armstrong has a point: none of what I've just said is new or is satisfactory as an excuse. The failure to manage these facts and manage our access to space -- perhaps by a privatization push a decade earlier…
>you can't trust exploration to the politicians.
I've seen that " you cant trust X to polititians" waaay too often. What's left around that one can supposedly trust them with ?
Or even better, is there something we don't trust politicians with that is faring particularily better? the corporate world doesnt seem to show any kind of outstanding performance, and is in fact just as pervaded with politics, with the execs playing the politicians' roles.
Any organization big enough to pull off the kind of stunt needed to push our exploration even further is inevitably big enough to be paralyzed by political strife. Small startups are pretty much out of the game because no one found a way of making space exploration profitable.
I can see how the situation is broken, but how can it be fixed?
Re: Armstrong to Nasa: You're embarrassing
#10The title is completely misleading. Armstrong did not tell NASA "you're embarrassing". He told the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology that the demise of NASA is embarrassing. And it is. Regardless of the other crap our government spends money on, NASA is a fantastic investment, and has always provided a positive return to our economy.
I'm sorry, but you have no way of knowing this. What would happen if you took a bunch of would-be rocket scientists and hadn't given them jobs at NASA?