Re: Crash for Armidillo

From: Rand Simberg (newsgroups_at_transterrestrial.com)
Date: 08/13/04 

Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 04:05:14 GMT

Greg Kuperberg wrote:

>>They're not a serious Ansari X-Prize contender--they're moving forward
>>at this point because (I assume, John will correct me if I'm mistaken)
>>it's fun, and on the off chance that they can ultimately make a business
>>of it.
>
>
> That's reasonable enough, although I would say that the "off chance"
> is more like an "off off chance".

We know that you'd say that, Greg. Not that we care that much...

>>We know you hate the notion of people going into space, Greg,...
>
>
> There is a difference between antipathy and skepticism. I don't
> think that X-Prize projects are remotely practical, except sometimes
> as big stunts. The best ones might fall somewhere between Evel Knievel
> and the Daedelus project. But I also don't bear any grudge against
> these projects. If Burt Rutan gets killed by his braggadocio, then
> that would be very sad, but it would be his business. If he succeeds
> and wins the X-Prize, more power to him.
>
> The only kind of manned spaceflight that really annoys me is the kind
> pursued by the government, often pushing aside useful space activities and
> useful science, and wasting a lot of money to boot.

That annoys me, too, but I never get the sense from any of your posts
that it's your real problem. Every post of yours always comes across as
a knee-jerk antipathy to humans in space, and a delusion that if we
weren't spending government money on it that it would somehow be spent
on your own hobbyhorse.

> The only wrinkle with
> the X-Prize is that some politicians and some contractors have exploited
> wild X-Prize-type claims to further prop up the failed astronaut program.

Do you have any example to back up this fantasy?

>>...but you really need to learn to keep up.
>
> Okay, if Armadillo has no near-term plans to launch any people, then my
> apologies for disparaging them.

Depending on what you mean by "near-term," that's an amazing concession
(for you). Thank you.