Would you fly NASA?

If you were given the chance to jump aboard a Space Shuttle and hurtle off into Space, would you?

If NASA was responsible for preparing and maintaining the Shuttle, I'd be saying "thanks, but no thanks..." 

NASA officials always remind us that space travel is inherently dangerous. They clearly are right, but it seems that the danger is due to the crap build quality and maintenance standards of the machines they spend billions putting together.  Not to mention that they buy some parts on eBay.

Just imagine if passenger aircraft blew up (twice in 113 missions) or had components falling off them as often as space shuttles have.  There would be hundreds of crashes every day.  Maybe that's not really a relevant or sensible comparison, but you get my point.

And after two and a half years and US$1billion dollars spent on safety since the Challenger crashed, killing all seven crew on board, how could NASA have got it so wrong and sent the aging old Discovery (it is 21) with the same problems? 

And now they expect their astronauts to venture out and do some "running repairs" and remove a piece of foam using such precision tools like a pair of scissors, a hacksaw fashioned out of a blade and a little duct tape.  Just the tools you need when you are working on the fragile thermal underbelly of an orbiting shuttle.

Hopefully, once the small piece of foam has been removed from its side , the shuttle should be able to land without incident.  And when it does, NASA should just give up, and ground its Death Trap Space Shuttles for good.

Anyway, why do we go to Space?  What good things, useful things, have ever come from these missions?  Can someone tell me one major scientific breakthrough that has resulted from a manned mission.  And that Space Station?  What does that do?  All it is is a fancy labratory with great view out of the window.

The bottom line is that going into Space is not all that useful. We can accomplish more science by sending unmanned probes.

Comments

[Jay]

I think that right now, it's a huge waste of time. Here, on Earth, people are starving, or dying of cancer, or are fighting useless wars. I think money would be better spent on any of these endeavors.