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It's the _entire_ point of the piece. And it's not really all that much of a political statement. The message is pretty clear: don't send people to die in space
by dagenix 8y ago
It's the _entire_ point of the piece. And it's not really all that much of a political statement. The message is pretty clear: don't send people to die in space for stupid-ass political reasons.
- xeeeeeeeeeeenu 8y agoWhat makes you think that Trump's administration is/will be "sending people to die in space"?
- abduhl 8y agoEveryone sent into space was for a political reason. Whether or not you think it's a stupid-ass reason is more of a reflection on yourself than the message.
- duxup 8y agoIn this case the craft was not ready, it seemed to be widely known that the person who took that spot would die. I think that is an important contrast compared to "everyone sent into space"
- abduhl 8y agoSure, in the case of Komarov. But that's not what we're talking about in this comment thread - we're talking about the inclusion of a random tweet about Mike Pence that could have been left out without changing the message at all.
- duxup 8y agoKinda seems off to ignore the actual example of the article ... but be concerned about the tweet.
- tomatotomato37 8y agoAs a counterpoint, sending people to space for stupid-ass political reasons resulted in one of humanity's greatest technological achievements that allowed us to put the plaque up there in the first place.
- Piskvorrr 8y agoNote the subtle difference between "sending people to space" and "sending people to die in space". (As explained in the thread, Soyuz-1 was hurried to launch for political reasons despite being unspaceworthy)
- nwienert 8y agoThat doesn't counter GP's point, it reinforces it. The successful moon missions were all launched for political reasons, too.
- x0054 8y agoHe is pointing out that there is a difference between sending people to space for political reasons and sending people to space for political reasons in known to be unsafe aircraft knowing that the possibility of death is significantly above average. One is risking someone’s life for achievement and glory. The other is killing someone because your fragile ego can’t take the hit of not being ready on time for some stupid political deadline.
- nwienert 8y agoYea, the point is why is there a random political shot at Pence? It makes no sense. It’s shoehorning a totally petty and not relevant potshot. Every space mission has been “political”, and of course everyone agrees you shouldn’t do a bad job at it.