I see that the next heavy-lift vehicle for NASA
has been officially announced. The business of sending stuff and people into low Earth orbit is being left entirely in the hands of the free market, while NASA concentrates on putting men on Mars and asteroids with this new rocket, bigger than the Saturn V.
And the name of this gi-normous new super-rocket? The "Space Launch System." I can see kids just drooling to start playing with models of THAT, can't you?
Now, I know that NASA can never return to the glory days of the Space Race. When guys with ballz of pure titanium rode Atlases, Titans and Saturns into space. But in those years, when NASA worked hard both at doing a mind-boggling task that no one could have dreamed of only 10 years before... they did that work with STYLE.
Now, they're planning projects that make no real sense, just to have something to do. And they're doing it with no style at all. AND, they are doing it in full knowledge that Congress will never buy what they're trying to sell. I just do not get it. NASA would be better off admitting to itself that it is never going to launch humans into space for America... EVER. Launching robots to long-distance destinations appears to be its final niche... at least until America finds some way to become prosperous again.
