Victor wrote:

Pierre wrote:

Don't forget Bush wants the end of Hubble and want s to deicde what's
good in science...

Actually it is NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe who decided that fixing
Hubble is not worth an astronaut's life or losing another shuttle.

How can that be?  The Space Scuttle is perfection itself.  It is the
cheapest, safest, most effective route to Man In Space and into deep
space.  NASA doesn't make mistakes - certainly not engineering
mistakes, certainly not twice, certainly nothing chronic that extra
safety measures, more regulations, more lift deadweight, more mission
scrubs, more studies, and bigger budgets cannot address.

Uncle Al says, "If you cannot pound a screw into a 2x4, you fire the
incompetent bastard who produced the hammer.  The project manager then
gets an incentive bonus and the project studies the issue of 2x4 vs.
1.5" x 3.5".

A
board of investigation was set up to determine the risks involved.  I
personally think the risk is not that high and that a human service
mission should go ahead as planned.

100% agreement.  After the first Space Scuttle anomalous occurance and
Richard Feynman, all the folks who did the original round of
voluminous safety appraisals set upon doing a second round.  Feynman
said it was a 1% chance of catastrophic failure rather than a part per
million statistically assessed risk.  Feynman was a delusional ass,
and all the more so for the coincidence of his having been accurate
instead of a team player.

There is no "I" in victory.
There is no "I" in triumph.
Any MBA casebook will tell you, "If at first you don't succeed, keep
on sucking 'till you do suck seed."  "Team America, World Police"
knows that!  Sean O'Keefe is an Ur- mentor of it.
 

Wrt. the US space program - I prefer Bush's Vision for Space
Exploration.

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/sunshine.jpg
 Bush the Lesser's Vision for Space Exploration

 From what I have read on Space.com, Kerry is still stuck
in a 'low-Earth orbit' research mentality.  With Kerry as president,
space enthusiasts like us can kiss promising missions like the Jupiter
Ice Moons and Pluto-Kuiper Express missions good-bye.

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/sunshine.jpg
 John Kerry's Vision for Space Exploration

Uncle Al says, "If you have no place to go, any path will get you
there."

-- 
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
 (Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf