Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!hc!pprg.unm.edu!unmvax!gatech!gitpyr!ccoprmd
From: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.EDU (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: alien contact
Message-ID: <7806@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: 2 Apr 89 01:04:06 GMT
References: <7751@pyr.gatech.EDU> <10245@nsc.nsc.com> <7787@pyr.gatech.EDU> <1989Apr1.224541.22308@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: ccoprmd@pyr.UUCP (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 21

In article <1989Apr1.224541.22308@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>Of course, if they consider spaceflight a major sign of civilization, then
>there's absolutely no doubt about where they will go:  Baikonur.  Or just
>possibly Plesetsk, although if they're being attentive to things like the
>activity around Mir it'll be Baikonur for sure.  The other spaceports on
>Earth are insignificant by comparison to either of those two.  Between them
>they handle 80%+ of Earth's space traffic.
>-- 
You fail to realize, I feel, that by the standards of a civilization that can
send ships to the stars, neither we nor the Russians have any claim to being
a space-faring civilization.  Besides, I doubt that self-respecting aliens
would have as their sole criterion of civilization the number of cheap 
chemical rockets that could be sent up.  Quality versus quantity, I'd choose
quality every time.


-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matthew DeLuca                      :
Georgia Institute of Technology     : Remember, wherever you go, there you are.
ARPA: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu        :