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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: L-5 Society
Message-ID: <6252@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Jan-86 14:09:57 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6252
Posted: Thu Jan  2 14:09:57 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Jan-86 14:09:57 EST
References: <12161097670.46.JOSEPH@RED.RUTGERS.EDU> <8512200202.AA01024@riacs.ARPA>, <776@petrus.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 30

Other people have pointed out that the L5 Society as a whole has *no*
position on SDI, although certain L5ers do, so I won't belabor that.

> ...It almost seems that to them [L5ers],
> ANY space project is automatically a GOOD space project.
> 
> Seems to me that Werner von Braun once had a problem like that.

And he did us all a favor, too.  Bainbridge's "The Spaceflight Revolution"
makes a convincing case for the effort Nazi Germany spent on the V-2 being
a near-total waste.  It simply was not a cost-effective weapon, compared to
alternatives like V-1s, jet fighters, etc.  Its later contribution to space
development was far more significant than its effect on WW2.  Even the more
conventional bombing raids on London accomplished nothing militarily useful,
and they were rather more accurate than the V-2.

(There is some speculation that when Churchill ordered a raid on Berlin in
retaliation for a couple of off-course bombers dropping a few bombs on the
outskirts of London, he may have been specifically hoping that Hitler would
get angry enough to divert German bombers away from British fighter airfields
and onto city attacks.  The attacks on the fighter bases were a major threat,
while attacks on the cities would accomplish little.  It worked.)

Incidentally, von Braun was once arrested by the Gestapo on the charge that
he cared more about spaceflight than about winning the war.  Dornberger, his
boss, got him loose, basically by pulling rank -- no attempt was made to
dispute the accuracy of the charge.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry