Cynics Anonymous

Comment Threads

• J05H commented on More Opinions on NASA's Value
  @Patrick - Cell phones were invented concurrently by Bell Labs and Nokia in the '80s. Had nothing to do with Apollo except that they both use radio and electricity. Apollo computers were not the driving factor in PC or portable computing - invention of the integrated circuit created modern computing. Spinoffs are not enough and poorly chosen examples make it worse. Space needs to have real, tangible value for people to support it. Weather sats and GPS do that. Tang/teflon/etc does not....

• Malden12 commented on More Opinions on NASA's Value
  NASA's value is pork, plain and simple. NASA is not about NASA like so much of our government. It is about wasted money that advances power and kickbacks for the politically connected. I am amazed that NASA people have the gaul to say $17 B is not enough money to go to the moon. It's plenty of money if you don't waste 80% of it. At one point NASA did have value. It motivated and inspired us. It broke new ground in so many areas. Now it just wastes money. Government spending is going to hit a wall pretty soon....

• Frank Sietzen commented on More Opinions on NASA's Value
  People who tar and feather NASA with every shortcoming known to man neither understand NASA nor the nature of a federal bureaucracy. And let me simply predict that NASA-like every bureaucracy ever created-will be with us always. So critics had better make the best of it....

• Fred Sanford commented on Video: Ares 1-X Launch
  I agree with the previous poster looking at the orientation of the towers along side of it .. it looked as though it was already at a slight angle before it lifted off the pad.. Again that's why they make test flights.. People complaining about the cost should understand spending 450 million on a test is better than losing one single astronaut life due to an untested rocket concept. Computers simulations aren't enough to see the intangibles that go along with aerodynamics.. I was just happy to see the damn thing launch .. Now I wonder did I see the...

• RichardC commented on Video: Ares 1-X Launch
  The animations of the intended mission I saw showed a positive separation of the 2nd stage from the 1st stage with small rockets, and then the tumble rocket on the 1st stage was intended to stop the 1st stage catching up with the 2nd, which often happens after burn-out with solid rockets. In the end it looked like the 2 stages separated and the 2nd stage 'fell-off' the 1st. There was a verbal call that the tumble rocket had fired but looks like there was a (minor) anomaly of some sort. Overall, seemed an excellent mission....