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/sci/ - Science & Math

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File: 522 KB, 1280x1919, Space Shuttle Atlantis.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9928739 No.9928739 [Reply] [Original]

Are we better off without the Space Shuttle program?

>> No.9928759

>>9928739
Not sure -- but we WOULD HAVE BEEN better off never building the damn thing, and either continuing to use and develop the Saturn boosters, or starting a whole new line of "one shot" rockets.

Maybe the shuttle program would have been worth doing if it had not been Proxmired to the point where it was so fucking inefficient, limited and economically retarded. But we'll never know.

>> No.9929209

Buran was better

>> No.9929244

>>9928739
Very yes

>> No.9929302

>>9929209

I hate this fucking meme.

It doesn't fucking matter if the Buran was 10 times more capable than the Shuttle, the fact that the Buran was built and operated in the USSR while the Shuttle was operated in the United States means the Shuttle was actually capable of conducting missions.

The individual "stats" of the two ships don't fucking matter; the logistical and political systems they operated in do.

>> No.9929324

>>9929209
But was also about 3 times more expensive to operate, because it chucked 8 highly advanced and expensive staged-combustion engines into the drink every flight, instead of two empty tubes of metal.

>> No.9929336

>>9928739
No
Because it precipitated the private sector race now

>> No.9929343

>>9929302
>the Buran was built and operated in the USSR


Built, yes.

Operated, no.

>> No.9929345

yes, it was basically axed after Columbia for being a clusterfuck of a program. It kept flying for 9 more years to allow time for the Constellation program to develop something, and we know how that turned out.

Things are looking good now, SLS block 1 has three funded flights, starting in 2020 with EM-1, and then EM-2 and Europe Clipper in 2023. Funding has been allocated for Mobile Launcher 2, so it can be constructed in parallel to block 1B development and block 1 flights.

>> No.9929934

>>9928739

Would we have been better off without the shuttle program in the first place?
Yes

Would we be better of now with the shuttle?
Maybe -Orion and SLS are still a few years away, but the shuttle would still be as dangerous and as inefficient as when it got canceled

>> No.9929960
File: 184 KB, 1024x550, saturn-v-launches.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9929960

>>9928739
This glorious bastard never had a launch failure, we spent millions and millions developing it -- and then we just ashcanned it for the most expensive and dangerous way to get to orbit ever devised.

Yes. I'm mad.

>> No.9930957

>>9929345
>Things are looking good now
How is wasting tens of billions dollars on a couple of launches "looking good"? Are you insane? SLS is as big of a mistake as Shuttle was.

>> No.9930972

>>9929960
they wanted to make the first stage recoverable too