Dean hasn't pulled the plug yet, so I'm still lurking around. I've been letting the successors have the spotlight. But I miss the old gang... {sniff}
On to important things! Space.com today announced that a monument to X-pilot Major Mike Adams would be erected on May 8 in the Mojave Desert. Maj. Adams posthumously gained astronauts' wings when he exceeded 50 miles altitude on hs seventh X-15 flight, November 15, 1967. A hypersonic spin caused the craft to go out of control.
In what may become a monument to US space efforts, The April 30 entry mentions that Senator Sam Brownback (R, Kansas) "chaired a hearing on international space exploration programs in the Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee. "
The Senator noted that several different countries have significantly increased space activity in recent years.
'"America has always led the way to new frontiers - frontiers of science, frontiers of freedom and opportunity, and frontiers in space," Brownback said. "Other nations are mounting impressive new ventures in space - some of them very low-cost but significant nonetheless. I, for one, don't think we should need to explain to our children years from now why others are walking on other worlds and reaping the benefits of space exploration when we are not."'
Let's hope that American voters learn the Viking Lesson...
Yuh huh! Just keep talking like this, and it will - must - be done. The popular will should, and will, be - let's go to space.
We need your voice, and a thousand more like it....
The best way to do that would be to junk NASA. It is nothing but a sinkhole for a limited budget. Ditch the rockets and find another way. Until the cost per pound gets down to the double digit range, the space program will not get traction. LEO can be very profitable, if a bulk launcher can be developed. there are several interesting possibilites, but they won't get any money as long as NASA is sucking up funds. The two elements of a sucessful push to space are romance and profit. The only people that are interested in the science are the scientists. However, it is the user that has to pay for it, so if the user isn't interested, nothing happens. The perfect person to head a new space agency would be that Spielberg fellow. But not until he is done with starwars CCLXVI, or what ever is next.