I had an Uncle who went down to Florida during that time. He brought back a bunch of models, one the full mockup of a Saturn 5 rocket. The fact that we scrapped the most powerful booster there was, boggles my mind. So much development and research simply written off. They say that with over a million moving parts that even a 1% failure rate would be a disaster. Did any of you guys watch the Apollo Soyuz mission? I though that was very cool in a time when both countries really needed to step back for a bit.
Anyway here is our future military presence in space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_%28spacecraft%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3#On-board_gun
Did you guys know that the Soviet space station had a gun?
“The Salyut 3, called "civilian" station, was equipped with a "self-defence" gun, which had been designed for use aboard the station, and whose design is attributed to Nudelman.[1] Some accounts claim the station was equipped with a Nudelman-Rikhter "Vulkan" gun, which was a variant of the 23 mm Nudelmann aircraft cannon, or possibly a Nudelmann NR-30 30 mm gun.”
Not quite the promising vision Kennedy talked of. Generals are a lot like lawyers in a way, were as they have no problems perpetuating their own importance through conflict. It’s amazing to me, the reckless abandon our politicians pander the military. I hope Virgin gets their crap together and we can start making space travel somehow commercial, versus countries shooting at each other in a vacuum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic
Excellent topic J, I loved that documentary.
Hey once I got to meet John Glen at a party, it was an absolute surprise and I was flabbergasted, so didn’t have a friggin thing to say. I wish I had that five minutes back.
Ever see the movie 'Capricorn One'?
