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One of the great boondoggles of our history is finally wound down. The sentiment should not be nostalgia, but rage for all those wasted resources. Consider just
by iwwr 16y ago
One of the great boondoggles of our history is finally wound down. The sentiment should not be nostalgia, but rage for all those wasted resources. Consider just the kind of unmanned probes that could have been sent out there.
- jrockway 16y agoWait until you hear how much the military costs. Just consider the kind of foreign aid we could provide if we weren't shooting injured civilians from billion-dollar helicopters. The point is, the amount of money the space shuttle wastes is nothing compared to what the rest of the government wastes. Things get funded because they appeal to people -- the space shuttle is the reason NASA gets funded at all. Sending people to space is cool.
- Retric 16y agoSending people to space is cool. But sending people AND stuff to space at the same time is simply a stupid waste of money. The Apollo program docked space ships launched from the moon. If the shuttle was designed for 8 people + air filters + some water and no cargo it could have added a lot more redundancy and with a better Mass to surface area ratio it could have returned to earth a lot cooler. They could have even added some air breathing engines and landed an airplane vs a falling brick. We needed a 6-8 seat aircraft and built a 737.