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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Shuttle Articles in Discover Magazine
Message-ID: <6241@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Dec-85 18:01:12 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6241
Posted: Thu Dec 19 18:01:12 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Dec-85 18:01:12 EST
References: <8511302156.AA10294@s1-b.arpa>, <594@riccb.UUCP> <6202@utzoo.UUCP>, <601@riccb.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 20

[Having let the last-referenced article sit for a while so I could cool off
before replying to it, I've decided that most of it isn't worth rehashing.
However, one point deserves comment.]

> > ...Probably nobody on Earth could have kept [the Shuttle promises] -- although
> > there are some people I'd have given better odds than I'd have given NASA
> > on the job...
> 
> ...So who could have done better?  Who HAS done better?...

If I had to use the US aerospace establishment to build a Space Shuttle,
I think I'd give the contract to Kelly Johnson's "Skunk Works" at Lockheed,
and tell him to call me when he was ready for flight tests -- and not before.
Or I'd give it to Ed Heinemann at Douglas (if I'm allowed to juggle time
scales a bit so he'd still be there), with the same instructions.  That is,
to people who have a track record of doing difficult aerospace jobs quickly
and cheaply.  A rare distinction, alas.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry