Monday, July 3, 2006
Cracks in the Foam
So now the news is that the space shuttle launch, scheduled for tomorrow after several delays, could be in jeopardy because of a big ol' crack in the foam on the fuel tank. Of course, it was foam that fell off of the fuel tank that hit space shuttle Columbia in 2003, eventually dooming the craft.
The whole damn shuttle process pisses me off.
I think this country should be spending—wisely, of course—good money on top-notch science to take mankind into space. But that's not what we're doing. Instead, we're still futzing around with the space shuttle, which is 1970s technology—and even the space shuttle was a budget compromise of sorts.
There's no need to have a space shuttle attached to a foam-laden bag of explosives. There's new technology. Yet we're still using the equivalent of a 1976 Dodge Dart to get into space. Sigh.
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