At some point, I’m sure they will be fed up with with constant extensions and uncertainties. Even if you love fishing, being restricted to a fishing boat for months would wear thin.
Yeah, you were one of the nattering nabobs of negativism back then, but the SLS is sticking with the same core diameter as the Shuttle external tank, re-using the RS-25 engines, and re-using the Shuttle SRB’s. It’s a slam dunk to come in ahead of schedule and under budget, and I’ll bet they have it in routine operation by 2013 or 2014 at the latest. NASA is a lean, results focused organization and they’re going with proven parts in a simple booster configuration that college undergrads couldn’t botch.
And the Orion capsule is simply an improved Apollo, bigger and more capable and built with the huge leaps in engineering, design, and manufacturing tools we’ve made since the 60’s. The engineers could design it after work as a retro-hobby project and still get in done in under a year. It’s almost like asking Boeing or Lockheed to build a 1970’s Soyuz capsule or a P-51 replica, but with modern electronics instead of discrete transistors or vacuum tubes.
The whole idea of switching to the SLS instead of Ares is faster/cheaper, so I’m confident NASA will use it to get us back into cis-lunar space by 2015 or 2016, with a lunar landing shortly thereafter. I mean, how could they not? They’re NASA for God’s sake, and SLS/Orion is child’s play compared to the Shuttle. It’s a program NASA can run almost by muscle memory.
So while you detractors and naysayers sit on the sidelines and carp about what is obviously going to be a stunning success of the Obama White House, I’m going to go write reality-based space coverage about the awesomeness of the SLS program for new media outlets like Gawker.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams got a Christmas gift that money cannot buy; another extension of their time aboard ISS.
https://tinyurl.com/9ht3hxev
At some point, I’m sure they will be fed up with with constant extensions and uncertainties. Even if you love fishing, being restricted to a fishing boat for months would wear thin.
Yeah, you were one of the nattering nabobs of negativism back then, but the SLS is sticking with the same core diameter as the Shuttle external tank, re-using the RS-25 engines, and re-using the Shuttle SRB’s. It’s a slam dunk to come in ahead of schedule and under budget, and I’ll bet they have it in routine operation by 2013 or 2014 at the latest. NASA is a lean, results focused organization and they’re going with proven parts in a simple booster configuration that college undergrads couldn’t botch.
And the Orion capsule is simply an improved Apollo, bigger and more capable and built with the huge leaps in engineering, design, and manufacturing tools we’ve made since the 60’s. The engineers could design it after work as a retro-hobby project and still get in done in under a year. It’s almost like asking Boeing or Lockheed to build a 1970’s Soyuz capsule or a P-51 replica, but with modern electronics instead of discrete transistors or vacuum tubes.
The whole idea of switching to the SLS instead of Ares is faster/cheaper, so I’m confident NASA will use it to get us back into cis-lunar space by 2015 or 2016, with a lunar landing shortly thereafter. I mean, how could they not? They’re NASA for God’s sake, and SLS/Orion is child’s play compared to the Shuttle. It’s a program NASA can run almost by muscle memory.
So while you detractors and naysayers sit on the sidelines and carp about what is obviously going to be a stunning success of the Obama White House, I’m going to go write reality-based space coverage about the awesomeness of the SLS program for new media outlets like Gawker.
Well, thanks, George. You used up the entire world’s allotment of sarcasm for the week. Now we have to wait until next week for the counter to reset.
Off topic perhaps, but when did Popular Mechanics turn into AI clickbait?
At the bottom of Rand’s article is a comeon link:
A Snorkeler Went on a Routine Excursion—and Stumbled Upon a Hidden Chunk of Rocket. The photo looks like a prop plane. The article claims this “rocket” was part from Ariane found off Honduras.
“Rand Simberg says this proposal’s complexity and politically driven makeup could mean that it will never produce a flyable vehicle.”
Got it in one.