endeavour
This is just a quick note to say that although in the past I have counted myself a fan of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, in recent years, upon closer inspection of the history and nature of it all, I’ve had to remove myself from that camp. My dissatisfaction with the program was further consolidated this evening as I continued to watch the Discovery Channel mini-series on NASA I received for Christmas and Gene Kranz, of all people, praises the program to the sky (pun intended) by calling it a “revolution in spaceflight” and an “aerodynamic tour de force.” That sound bite just got to me. And while I’ll concede that whatever his personal views on the issue, as a NASA man I’m sure he has to tow the line somewhat, and it was something of a revolution to have a reusable spacecraft, an “aerodynamic tour de force” the Shuttle most certainly isn’t. It’s profoundly conservative and actually rather boring from an aerodynamic standpoint, and while the revolution bit might be true in a sense, is it really the kind of vehicle we wanted leading that revolution? I would argue no. More on this issue forthcoming.