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From: @S1-A.ARPA:host.MIT-MC.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: space station funding/reply to Skran
Message-ID: <1730@mordor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-May-85 23:36:45 EDT
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Posted: Thu May  9 23:36:45 1985
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From: crash!bnw@SDCSVAX.ARPA

     Fact of life--budgets are going to get cut.  There is no sense pretending
otherwise.  Yes, chopping NASA funds is stupid; it sells the future short.
And, yes, I have written to Senator Wilson to tell him how I feel.
     What I was trying to say is that when the cuts come anyway, it would be
better to spend the money on something that will generate a result.  We still
have a lot to learn and one never knows what benefit may be gained by some new
bit of knowledge until it happens.  Think of all the research that would never
have been done if nobody could predict a benefit.
     We also have some learning to do before we put a space station up there.
There are a lot of techniques and technologies involved that have not been
shown to be workable as yet.  The shuttle has proven a good many things,
including the fact that a pretty fair number of spacecraft systems have a
tendency to breakdown under the load.  That won't do in a space station.
                                                         /Bruce N. Wheelock/
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