I’ve had my differences with him over the years, but he has a piece in the WSJ with which I basically agree. I’d say the only thing he gets wrong was that it was Apollo itself that set us on the wrong path. The Shuttle was just a symptom of Apolloism.
[Behind the paywall, but do a Google search for “Mission to Nowhere” and it should come up]
It’s great fun to speculate what kind of ‘space program’ we’d of had in the 60’s if not for Kennedy’s ‘Before this decade is out…’ speech.
I’m convinced there would have had to be something to react to the Russian firsts. But what? If the moon wasn’t the stated goal? An accelerated Dyna-Soar program? Race to a space station? With no need of a Saturn V type vehicle, more variants of Titan? I suppose the need to quickly establish a space station might have lead to a heavy lift version of Titan? How much lead time did Von Braun have in Saturn development? Would the Saturn I have seen more service in this type scenario? The advantages over 1 big rocket vs. beefing up a smaller one?
Are there any alternative-future fictions out there to read that anyone would recommend?
It is not negativism to warn of a present danger.
But is he a 6’5″ Chinese woman?
Yes, but in complaining about executives in the entertainment industry making violent films, Mr. Easterbrook admitted his own ancestors being “brutal savages in an unknown island” — seehttp://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/what-disraeli-actually-said/