patrick.net

thunderlips11 says

The problem with the space program was the Space Shuttle. It didn't perform as advertised (we should be at STS-1000+ by now, not 133), with a 3-4 month turnaround per mission. Instead it was more like a year and a half-two year turnaround. It's also a very expensive way of getting payloads into space.

The Space Shuttle is the reason NASA lost a great deal of income, and the USAF had to step in just to launch their own needs as the Shuttle's schedule kept falling so far behind that military-critical satellite launches were delayed by years.

What we need are our heavy rockets back.

That's one way. Or perhaps we can buy surplus heavy rockets from Russia. I wonder how much they go for on E-bay?

Or buy Chinese rockets. They did invent them after all.

thunderlips11 says

The problem with the space program was the Space Shuttle.

The problem with the Space Shuttle wasn't NASA, it was the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex. They had a vision of a space 18-wheeler to deliver and service their MASSIVE spysats and that perverted the project. The Hubble was merely the cheap civilian byproduct of the KH-11 which came in an identical form factor. This was made manifest when the NRO donated a bunch of spare parts for Hubble recently, leftovers from their spy satellites they wanted to clear out of the closet. If STS hadn't had to live up to a whole bunch of requirements to be a do-everything HUMV with civilians along for the ride, it would have been a very different design I think.

Dan8267 says

And what precisely did Nixon do for the Apollo program that warrants giving him the credit for it?

he inherited Apollo just like he inherited Vietnam, LOL.

Both got wound up on his watch, on very parallel schedules.

I'm just old enough to remember that Apollo-Soyuz thing, that's the only pre-Shuttle thing I remember about our space program, actually.

Vicente says

The Hubble was merely the cheap civilian byproduct of the KH-11 which came in an identical form factor. This was made manifest when the NRO donated a bunch of spare parts for Hubble recently, leftovers from their spy satellites they wanted to clear out of the closet. If STS hadn't had to live up to a whole bunch of requirements to be a do-everything HUMV with civilians along for the ride, it would have been a very different design I think.

Interesting stuff about Hubble. Amazing that we can put dozens of spy satellites into space, but every penny spent on science is begrudgingly doled out only after years of intense lobbying and begging.

Bellingham Bill says

he inherited Apollo just like he inherited Vietnam, LOL.

Both got wound up on his watch, on very parallel schedules.

If I remember my history correctly, Nixon was a hawk regarding Vietnam all during the 1960s before he became president.