I don't think other countries (aside from Russia) have a true space program...(if I'm wrong let me know).

China found it was much simpler to just shoot satellites out of the sky with a rocket then go up and fix them

You're right, when I was at KSC earlier this summer they talked about their replacement ship to actually launch next year. Not sure I understand why we need to go to the moon again, unless it really was all filmed in Hollywood

I would be more interested in a deep sea exploration unit, but that is just me.

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

They continue to cut the budget for NASA. They are using a shuttle design that is 30 years old now. What they need to do is to modernize the entire program, but that will require funding.



As I mentioned, the reason it is taking so much time is lack of funding and support. In the 1960s, they received whatever funding was needed to achieve the end goal -- going to the moon. And since then, they have accomplished very little. If you had told most Americans in 1969 that we would stop going to the moon 5 years later, and that 38 years later we would not have gone anywhere else, most would have thought you were nuts.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

In the 60's we wanted to look cool and beat the Russians, we have no competition now..hence no real need to advance.

As it is with anything, if you have no competition, you die.

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Juan,

you should check your info. Case in point, as a matter of fact they are still using both TACAN and MSBLS instead of GPS. You can only put so many bandaids and at this point I would hardly call the shuttle the tool to "explore" space. They, being NASA continue to put human life/astronauts at risk.

My question for you, Juan is are YOU willing to fly on the shuttle knowing that the something's going fall out and you have a high chance of burning up during re-entry given a flawed/fragile design?

Yup! I would be. In a heartbeat. Would not even think twice.

Look, space travel has NEVER been without danger. There WILL be some folks who die. This has been the case from Day One, not just isolated to the Space Shuttle. You're acting as though these astronauts are being forced to go up there. They are lining up to go. They know it's dangerous, but it's their passion. Not unlike race car drivers, they know that every time they climb in that vehicle, it could be their last ride, but they are willing to accept that risk.

Again, I pose the question: can ANYONE else do it better or safer than we can? The Russians certainly cann't. The Europeans also have a Space Agency, and they can't (or won't) do it either.

For those of you who think we NASA has not contributed anything since the 1960s, let me give you a small list of inventions that were either a DIRECT invention of NASA or that came about as a result of NASA research:

- Kidney dialysis machines
- CAT Scans
- Cardiovascular exercise machines
- Hospital food service systems (allows for the food to be cooked and kept warm well after it's been cooked)
- Insulation barriers used in cars (for the engine bay)
- Water purification systems
- MRI technology
- "Cool suits" currently used by race car drivers
- Bar coding
- Satellite technology
- Ear thermometers
- Cordless tools
- The vision screening system we (glass-wearers) use
- Fire fighter equipment (both the suit and oxygen tank improvements)
- Smoke detectors
- Those aerodymanic bycicle wheels used by the dope-taking cyclists in the Tour de France
- Shock-absorving helmets (think football and motorcycle helmets)
- Even joystick controllers

You get the point.

Any doubts that we should support this organization?

Juan

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Whenever I text "Barack," my phone suggests the word "Capable." I guess my my phone IS pretty smart.

Let me just add one more thing. Look at the list of inventions above, and tell me how many thousands and thousands of people have been saved by those inventions? How many millions of lives has NASA improved because of their research? Keep in mind, none of this research would exist if we did not want to explore space.

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Whenever I text "Barack," my phone suggests the word "Capable." I guess my my phone IS pretty smart.

Ummm....correct me if I am wrong, but except for a very small period in the late 1960s (present included), the Russian space program has always been way more advanced than ours. Even when we were launching the Apollo missions to the moon, we were still landing in a capsule in the ocean with parachutes, while the Russians always landed on the ground a la the space shuttle.

The Russians had their first space station (MIR) in orbit in 1982, and most of the technology of the current international space station, including the main 2 large modules, was built by the Russian space program. While we continue to have these problems the last few years of not being able to launch a shuttle without problems, the Russians continue to launch 4-5 Soyuz missions each year, and under an arrangement the last 5 years, the US government has been paying Russia $21 million each way for American astronauts to ride to and from the Space Station on the Soyuz crafts.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

The MIR was a piece of shit. The ISS almost killed its residents a few weeks ago because the Russian-made computers crashed, and the thing could not produce oxygen. And that's just the latest in a growing list of problems it has had over the past four or five years.

Not trying to bash the Russians; this just reinforces my point that this is difficult, and dangerous stuff.

Call me biased. I can live with that.

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Whenever I text "Barack," my phone suggests the word "Capable." I guess my my phone IS pretty smart.

It is very difficult when you do it with humans (maned space flight).

We really don't need maned space flight.

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Loving my BMW