Sean wrote: SL> There are plenty of people now campaigning to get a replacement for SL> Columbia built as quickly as possible. Perhaps ERPS (or a related group) SL> should commit itself to campaigning *against* replacing Columbia, and SL> perhaps to scuttling the Shuttle program altogether.
Shuttle may have serious flaws and costs unthinkable amounts of money to maintain and fly, grounding Shuttle would mean there would be no manned space flight on a western word vehicle in the next 10 years or so. Give the money to the Russians, wait the Chinese fine! The learning curve of small groups and and businesses is not steep enough to change that. Investors that will pour big money in space projects are rare these days. My grandpa used to say: Do not throw away your old tool, before you have a better one. >From time to time it has to be said, that going to space "is" harder in reality, than most people are able to imagine. To cite Randals motto: Every complex, difficult problem has a simple, easy solution - which is wrong. Hans PS: Sorry Randal Hans Ulrich Ammann mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.spl.ch _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
