New Frontier

Comment Threads

• possum commented on Buzz Aldrin Thanks President Obama
  "Yeah, I remember the last time. We got the space shuttle with 1/5 the lifting capability of a Saturn V launch vehicle, a $28B development cost (2008 dollars) before first flight, an operating cost of about $1.2B per flight and 14 dead astronauts." Cheaper, less expensive, and safer than Ares I could ever hope to be, don't even think about Ares V....

• Mike Hilton commented on Buzz Aldrin Thanks President Obama
  Well "possum" I see you pulled more unsubstantiated "facts" out of your......hat. Hope? We don't need "hope" to review the facts. Let's see...Augustine stated that Ares I and Orion would have an estimated recurring cost of almost $1 billion per flight. Hummmm that compares favorably with the shuttle's recurring cost of $1.2B per flight. So there goes your cheaper, less expensive argument and although it is open to debate, independents have ruled that it would be safer than shuttle. We don't have to discuss Ares V or any other heavy lifter as those are in a different class than the...

• FormerObamanaut commented on Buzz Aldrin Thanks President Obama
  CxP deserves to be canned, but to add to the commercial skepticism (and the airline analogy that Garver & Diamandis seem to like mentioning),there's the current Boeing Dreamliner that's still busting the cost & schedule bigtime with govt. funding assists no less. Ironic, Boeing commercial's latest better-faster-cheaper fad, outsourcing! And as for ULA, what's their actual launch record been, from day 1?...

• aerowerks commented on Buzz Aldrin Thanks President Obama
  Aldrin is a self serving as*, the second the next generation astronaut touches the surface of the moon, "Buzz" is out of a job. No more $50 autographs, no more multi $1000 speaking fees, ... . No wonder he supports not going to the Moon. Augustine comission, send a bunch of MBA bureacrats to decide about an engineering project, can we say Challenger? Anyone ever notice where the comission members used to or still work? I have seen the Falcon 9 up close, disaster waiting to happen. Why don't we just make it simple hand over all designs to the...

• Ben the Space Brit commented on Buzz Aldrin Thanks President Obama
  "That's right, graybeards, cold-war-era quotes are really going to inspire the younger generations. NASA will never again be what it was in the 1960s, precisely because the 1960s are dead and gone. " Y'know... In some ways, don't you think that we are poorer for this fact? The world now is so cynical, short-sighted and focussed on the immediate bottom line. Back in the 1960s, there was appreciation for things like dreaming of great achievements. It was understood that, if the world was to change for the better, we would have to do the unusual and risky rather than stick...