Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!eos!amelia!jeffrey
From: jeffrey@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Glenda L. Jeffrey)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Letter to Congress, et. al.
Summary: Competition is good!
Message-ID: <892@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 29 Aug 88 22:33:46 GMT
References: <1365@eos.UUCP> <13294@jumbo.dec.com>
Reply-To: jeffrey@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Glenda L. Jeffrey)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 25

In article <13294@jumbo.dec.com> you write:
>Adam Brody wrote:
>FLAME ON:
>>   The Soviets have had a continuous manned presence in space since
>>   February 1987 aboard Mir which is their eighth space station since
>>   1971.  They have accumulated over 5000 man-days in space greatly
>>   exceeding our 1800.
>
>I would rather see a better justification for the manned space program
>than "The Russians are doing it".  In fact, I would submit that the
>Russians are doing it mainly because the Americans are doing it...
>

I believe this is called competition... probably the 
single greatest motivator there is. Note that the *end result* is not
so much that the Americans did it or that the Russians did it, but that
the *human race* did it... even I, who get nationalistically
choked up every time I see a shuttle launch (or explode :-( ...) 
have to acknowledge this.

- Glenda gdwtch
  NASA/Langley Research Center
  jeffrey@amelia.nas.nasa.gov
  My views are not necessary those of my employer, and that's
   where the difficulty usually arises!