Friday, May 25, 2012

Writing On The Wall



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule made a historic arrival at the International Space Station on Friday, triumphantly captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.

The spacecraft took 1,000 pounds of food and supplies to the ISS and will bring back some of its trash and garbage in the reusable return capsule.

If I were a NASA bureaucrat, I'd sure be looking for a way to hobble those Dragon guys with a boatload of regulations, rules and requirements insuring that NASA would keep it's finger in the pie. After all - NASA has just about  written itself out of the manned space business by shutting down the Shuttle fleet and canceling its expensive - but dated - replacement.

One thing about the Dragon capsule and it's launch system... It wasn't built by the lowest bidder, so we probably won't see a repeat of the Apollo 1 disaster when future Dragons take astronauts into space.



2 comments:

TheWayfarer said...

"A private company" would never be able to get this kind of venture going. The Bankstaz & multi-national corporations have gotten this one past the radar of public opinion.
Eventually, NASA will be turned into the bureaucracy you allude to, if the venture becomes too profitable.

texlahoma said...

Damn Galt, you popped my bubble.
I was going to say something like
"Man, ain't free enterprise great?"

And Bob, I like the way you think, (the NASA bureaucrat thing)
I'm glad you're on our side!