What?!? Nelson, you may want to spend some quality time with this site, which has a good explanation of several varieties of logical fallacies:

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

For an XCOR company to question the competence or experience of NASA to safely place crew into orbit is as absurd as South Africa suggesting that Tokyo has a seriously high crime rate…

what?

as the robot on Lost in Space use to say “it does not compute”…either the first statement or the comparison.

“Safety” is as much as anything is a science not guess work. So for instance one does not have to be a sailor to evaluate the failures of the Command structure on RMS Titanic nor does one have to have sailed a “boat” of that size to see the problems.

One can be a safety expert in say oil well off shore platforms (as the person from Shell was who the CAIB consulted) and make an accurate determination if the methodology used by NASA in the Columbia “event” was “safe”…

I still do not get the Tokyo/South Africa comparison

Robert G. Oler

I would argue that we (the USA) have an economic interest in making sure that this market does not instead fall into the hands of other nations.

I would argue that ISS crew services would be a way to jump start this fledgling industry.

For an XCOR company representative to question the competence or experience of NASA with regard to safely placing crew into orbit is as absurd as South Africa suggesting that Tokyo has a seriously high crime rate.

I would argue that we (the USA) need to make sure that we have an economic interest in making sure that this market does instead not fall into the hands of other nations.

I would argue that ISS crew services would be a way to jump start this fledgling industry.

For an XCOR company to question the competence or experience of NASA to safely place crew into orbit is as absurd as South Africa suggesting that Tokyo has a seriously high crime rate.

For a startup like him to use infant mortality or paper designs as an argument against Ares is nothing less than comical forensic suicide, from a debate perspective…

crib deaths are part of the safety equation. Ask Boeing with The Dreamliner.

Robert G. Oler

He made cogent, logical points. They would remain so if he was head of Boeing, or a janitor there. You seem to have an inordinate illogical respect for authority, while not being able to distinguish between good and bad arguments. What is actually invalid about what he said? Stop attacking the debater, and deal with the issues.

Shelby’s comments make no sense.

….

Shelby has had that problem both as a Dem and a Republican

Robert G. Oler

For a startup like him to use infant mortality or paper designs as an argument against Ares is nothing less than comical forensic suicide, from a debate perspective.

Cheers,
Nelson

A little sigh of relief in this really strange worl of faith based HSF.

So the Augustine Committee stands behind any of the vehicle options in its report as safe. Is Shelby arguing that he doesn’t trust NASA to execute a detailed, safe design or procurement from the options provided by the Committee? Does Shelby really want the Augustine Committee or some other non-NASA entity to be responsible for doing detailed design safety on NASA vehicles and procurements?

Goofy…

Sure would be nice if our elected representatives in the NASA states and districts actually bothered to comprehend the expert advice they’re given and think about what they’re saying before they say it — for once.

Ugh…