Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mcnc!rti!sas!sasbrb
From: sasbrb@sas.UUCP (Brendan Bailey)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Soviet Shuttle
Summary: Falling behind...
Message-ID: <711@sas.UUCP>
Date: 17 Nov 88 15:23:21 GMT
Reply-To: sasbrb@sas.UUCP (Brendan Bailey)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 34


 
 I wrote:
 
 >   Well it happened.  I saw footage on CNN last night of the
 >Soviet Shuttle blasting off and footage this morning of it landing.
 >I was stunned that they pulled it off.   I was very impressed with 
 >the smooth landing. 
 >   If everything went okay, can you say "The United States has fallen
 >farther behind."?  I knew you could. :-(

-------------------

>> Hardly.  It shows that the Soviets are almost a decade behind
>> in this area at least.

>>                             David Messer - Lynx Data Systems

How can you say this?  Yes we made developed and flew the shuttle first,
but now that they have one which can be put into space carrying heavier
payloads than ours, along with their space station and thousands of man
hours in space, you should be able to see that the United States has 
fallen behind.  
   It is great that we have our shuttle back, but without a national 
goal, such as landing on the moon in the 60's, the space program will
continue to have a lack of direction and not get the public support to
spend the billions of dollars required for future projects, such as 
the space station.  

                                           Bren Bailey