Poll of the Day > Are any of you watching the Space X launch?

(+) Yeah! (+)

iirc the space shuttle was much cheaper than using this to get to space. Wasn't the space shuttle the most economic way of getting into space? It was just that it was scrapped cause of too many catastrophes?

CedarPointcp posted...

iirc the space shuttle was much cheaper than using this to get to space

I don't think it was. something like $18k/kg, versus $2-3k/kg for spacex

---

I cant think of a worse time for this.

but this is exactly why Trump wants to endorse this

---

FrozenBananas posted...

I cant think of a worse time for this.

but this is exactly why Trump wants to endorse this

There's nothing wrong with going now.
---

CedarPointcp posted...

It was just that it was scrapped cause of too many catastrophes?

It was scrapped for two reasons. One, the tech was insanely obsolete (they were built on 1970s tech, some of which literally no longer existed, which NASA would have to salvage scrap yards or custom build to replace). And two, because it made further moon landings (as well as any other planetary landing anywhere other than Earth) impossible, because it required landing strips/runways to land (and if something went wrong and you couldn't make it to one, you were kind of fucked).

Really, the only selling point of the shuttles in the first place was that they were cheaper than normal rocket launches (because you could reuse the lander over and over). But they wound up limiting what we could do beyond simply launching/repairing/recovering satellites or traveling to space stations.

So a conscious decision was made to abandon them in favor of more modern tech that could be more easily repaired/replaced, and which could be used for eventual moon/Mars landings. But then you actually have to come up with worthwhile designs and build them, which costs money, which means most taxpayers whine about how much NASA is getting and demand cutbacks.

The rise of international space programs and private flights led to even more scaling back - there's definitely a belief that there's no reason to fund a national space program anymore if we can just subcontract out to other people.
---

I get why it's cool and all, but I'm not in the mood to watch or care that much

---