"Keith Nuttle" wrote:

It is one of the saddest days of my life to see the symbolic end of
the US space program. In the fifties and sixties as kids we were
sure we would always be first, as the space program represented to
us that this country could do anything, and except for Sputnik we
did. Now the US has to stand by the side of the space road thumbing
a ride into space.

All of the technical advances that have enter mainstream from the
space programs are ending. Things like the Laser surgeries that
they are doing routinely today, which we would not have without the
initial work in President Reagan Starwar programs. Everything from
advances in medicine to Tang. The space program was the central
point in the federal research program, and there are millions of
things that we think of necessities today that started in the space
program.

In some ways it is also symbolic of decline of what was once a great
nation.

I hope we will realize what we are doing before we become just an
another of the many debit ridden countries that are trying to
survive as independent countries. A debit ridden nation that has a
first lady who said the only time she was proud to be an American
was when her husband became president.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poor baby, do you always have your head up your ass when you start
blowing hot air?

The folks here at JPL as well as the private company in El Segundo who
have
sent an unmanned vehicle to the space station, docked and then
successfully returned
to earth, might just take exception with your nonsense.

The fact that the Ruskis are providing "taxi service" for a short
period of time while the
next generation of manned vehicles are brought on stream is NBD, IMHO.

Have a beer before you pop a blood vessel.

Lew