12 July 2006

NASA giddy over shuttle success

I'm hoping they're not jumping the gun given the launch troubles, but experts and astronauts are clearly feeling the shuttle program is back on track.

I have mixed emotions about it.  Any space mission is better than none, but it seems like we're lagging behind with unsafe, decades-old designs and not much in the way of progressive R&D in manned spaceflight.  Be nice if we could move a tiny smidge of some of that funding the Pentagon drowns in every year over to NASA.  As much as I appreciate the utility of developing 15,000-pound bombs that can wipe out hardened terrorist colonies of mountain marmots, I think it'd be more worthwhile to spend tax money on space sciences, among other things.  Our time is running short, after all.

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