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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mmm!mrgofor
From: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Losing a shuttle
Message-ID: <631@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Mar-86 14:06:42 EST
Article-I.D.: mmm.631
Posted: Tue Mar 18 14:06:42 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Mar-86 06:37:39 EST
References: <259@noscvax.UUCP>
Organization: none
Lines: 43

In article <259@noscvax.UUCP> rupp@noscvax.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
>Much has been said about the loss of Challenger and what it means to
>the future of the space program and even the human race.  Perhaps the
>most telling message is the sudden realization that too many of us
>really did not understand what the loss of one of the shuttles would
>mean.  It is one thing to say that the astronauts, NASA officials, etc.,
>knew what the risk was.  They probably did sense the personal dangers to
>crew and even launch area personnel.  It is another matter to weigh the
>greater consequences of a loss of one quarter of the shuttle fleet.
>
>It now seems clear (to me anyway), that it was unbelievably foolish to
>rely totally on the shuttles to launch our coming space satellites.  It
>was a gamble, a huge one.  Didn't somebody every ask the question, "If
>a shuttle goes down, for whatever reason, how will we launch satellites?"
>
>I don't count funding as an
>excuse, since any amount of compromise in shuttle development and launch
>schedule would have been better than what we have now.  

	The only reason we have even the shuttle is because the military
wanted it and was therefore able to help secure the funding. You seem to
be saying that we should have had several programs going at once, at several
times the cost, but then discount funding problems. Funding is at the heart
of it - if we had more funds we probably would have more systems.

	As for your assumption that nobody thought about what would happen if
there was a crash: come on, do you really think they just forgot about that?
Be serious - I'm sure NASA would have loved to have had all sorts of different
launch systems and programs, but there is one BIG problem, and its name is:

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-- 
					--MKR

The first half of a project takes 90% of the time. The other half takes
the other 90%.