Save the Space Shuttle from NASA.

Save the Space Shuttle from NASA.

by SouthernFriedInfidel | Published on January 25th, 2010, 9:53 am | Science

While I was at the space center, one of the tour guides mentioned this shuttle sale business. She said that a Smithsonian docent had visited and mentioned that they were going to be getting Endeavor soon. The KSC guide had resisted that notion, saying that she had heard of no sale yet. Apparently, they are pretty attached to the shuttles.

And that's understandable. Without them, and with the Orion project unlikely to get actual funding, they will be very soon relegated to the status of the European space center as a launch site -- sending up comm sats, weather balloons and not a whole lot else. And dreaming the years away recalling the glory that once was...

:cry:

The Right Stuff will be coming from private firms in the future. Or so the Obama administration hopes.

And of course, the contracts will go to the lowest bidders. Blah...

Allows you to shift the blame too when the thing blows up because the gas pedal sticks.

Of course, it's interesting to note that most of the people who work at Kennedy Space Center are ALREADY contractors of one type or other. I guess this means that actual NASA employees are going to be come an even rarer breed than they already are. And Astronauts will eventually be put out t the highest bids. Man, the 21st century is gonna be great...

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:And of course, the contracts will go to the lowest bidders. Blah...

It is better than going to the highest bidder.

Provided it is properly specified and has adequate QC the lowest bidder should be just fine. I personally always look for the lowest cost - provided I am getting the product and service I want.

Lowest bidder is what keeps Canadian drug prices less than half US prices as an example. It doesn't mean that the product is inferior.

All that really stands in the way of keeping the shuttles flying is money. Honestly, that is the biggest piece of non-news I've seen in months. The only thing that keeps us from placing huge domed cities on the Moon, Mars and Europa is money, honey. We could have started developing space arks to send to nearby star systems, if humanity had ended all wars in 1918, like they promised.

But no -- gotta keep squabbling over territory and resources like the savages we are, until we finally drive ourselves to extinction. And a few million years later, the cockroaches will evolve into truly intelligent beings and find our ruins and fossils, and wonder what natural disaster killed us off.

Poor dopes. I bet THEY'LL make it. :evil:

I knew they wouldn't cancel them. 200 mil is a drop in the bucket.

Question is, what could we do if we repositioned all of our defense budget to NASA.... Wonder if we could build Destiny:

: sgu-destiny_288x288.jpg (14.6 KiB) Viewed 250 times

A good article by Phil Plait on the recent news about evidence for life on Titan

Bottom line, there is evidence that suppports the hypothesis that there is life on Titan. It's long way from 'proof' or even 'convincing evidence'