Comments on: One endorsement for Gingrich’s space position

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:57:17 +0000

DCSCA wrote @ February 1st, 2012 at 8:41 pm

“…and as we all know, if SpaceX tried to fly a crew today, theyâ€™d kill â€˜em.”

Must be nice living in your alternate universe.

Here in the real world an astronaut could have ridden in the Dragon during their Dec. 10′ test flight and stepped out the capsule back on Earth unscathed and in good spirits. And all things considered, that flight would probably have had a higher chance of survival if something had gone wrong than on the last 131 Shuttle launches.

But of course no one is paying SpaceX to launch crew to orbit yet, so like most things you blather about, you’re indulging in fantasy.

By: Prez Cannady

Prez Cannady — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:16:23 +0000

@Oler:

Which is my point about a lunar base. It is unaffordable as long as NASA does it.

Not true.

By: Prez Cannady

Prez Cannady — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:14:37 +0000

@Googaw:

Then why are you invoking them is an authority on cost numbers?

Because they're the best numbers we have, they're credible given the solid figures available for the dev to launch costs, and they've stuck with the sticker price all this way. But that wasn't Oler's point, now was it?

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:15:38 +0000

as we all Loons know, if SpaceX tried to fly a crew today, theyâ€™d kill â€˜em FTFY.

By: Googaw

Googaw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:30:32 +0000

“I dont know if SpaceX will be able to meet their cost numbers ”

Then why are you invoking them is an authority on cost numbers?

By: Googaw

Googaw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:44:37 +0000

I see that RGO still has not been able to answer even a single one of my simple questions about the costs of moonbase features and what they are supposed to accomplish. Just handwaving about SpaceX which is doing stuff that was done 50 years ago — versus a moonbase which has never been done. It’s great that SpaceX can take very old capabilities and reduce their costs. That’s a very important thing to do, and they deserve all the praise in the world for it. But it is nowhere near the same as doing very new and very different things like moon mining (or whatever it is supposedly useful that our lunar gigapilgrims are supposed to actually do).

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:41:41 +0000

Rand Simberg wrote @ February 1st, 2012 at 6:16 pm

Indeed. SpaceX does things cost effectively, and provides a return on investment.

So does McDonalds… but MickryDees ain’t very healthy and as we all know, if SpaceX tried to fly a crew today, they’d kill ‘em., NASA has been flying crews into and back from space for over half a century nd SpaceX has flown nobody– and most likely never will as they can’t make a buck doing it. That’s why governments do it. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:16:19 +0000

Any comparisons of SpaceX to NASA are utterly absurd.

Indeed. SpaceX does things cost effectively, and provides a return on investment.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:25:25 +0000

Googaw wrote @ January 31st, 2012 at 10:11 pm

Any comparisons of SpaceX to NASA are utterly absurd.

By: Rick Boozer

Rick Boozer — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:05:03 +0000

"Spending $4 billion a year to develop a new rocket system and a beyond LEO space craft is not an enormous financial burden on NASA. No, SLS is an not an enormous financial burden on NASA. That is not what I am saying. It's not about the relative size of the amount, it's about being able to do more with that same amount of money if we use other methods than SLS. If we are going to spend that amount of money, why not get more for that money than we will get with SLS? Are you really that dense? ANSWER THIS: You keep telling everyone that Congress chose SLS and so they should stop talking about cancelling it and just to "move on". That is one of your primary excuses for keeping SLS. But Congress also chose ISS, but you keep harping on cancelling it instead of just to "move on" with that. Do you not see the extreme hypocrisy of your postion? My God, what an Alice In Wonderland mentality you have!