Re: WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 19 Aug 05 Washington, DC



Sam Wormley wrote:
>
> WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 19 Aug 05 Washington, DC
[snip]

> 4. NASA: THE NEXT SHUTTLE FLIGHT WILL BE IN THE SPRING - MAYBE.
> A minority report by seven of the 25 members of the Columbia
> review board, critical of the agency for compromising safety to
> return to flight, was followed by an announcement that the
> shuttle will not fly before March 4. This again raises questions
> about the future of the ISS. It was built with no clear idea of
> what it was for. NASA now defends the ISS solely on the basis of
> commitments to partner nations to complete it. What's the point?
> It's reminiscent of the ABM system in Grand Forks, ND, abandoned
> in 1979, 24 hours after its construction was declared complete.

Add a smidgeon of long tow carbon fiber to the top layer foam to
prevent fragmentation. Was that so hard?

The E*L*E*C*T*R*I*C car was quashed immediately after Federal subsides
ended. Unlike the E*L*E*C*T*R*I*C car, ISS FUBAR is inevitably
returning given air resistanace in low Earth orbit and its idiot high
surface-area design. Won't we need the Space Scuttle to disassemble
it, too? Sure! We need whole new fleet of, well, orbital garbage
trucks.

One might imagine NASA accidently crashing ISS FUBAR in Iraq. If that
were the case, Uncle Al cautions folks not to stand under the Eiffel
Tower on splash day. In the words of Tom Lehrer,

"'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun."


--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf
.



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