daemon@caip.UUCP (01/29/86)
From: "pugh jon%e.mfenet"@LLL-MFE.ARPA In the wake of this tragic launch, which so quickly snuffed out the lives of the crew of the shuttle, I would like to repeat some of the things that I have heard that relate directly to this event. But first, please observe a moment of silence for those souls that we have lost. Here where I work, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we have a number of guest speakers come and address a number of topics. One of the people that appeared was Dr. Hans Mark, former head of NASA during the Nixon rein. He was involved when the Apollo missions were finished and the Space Shuttle was being proposed. He informed us of their original plan, which was a completely reusable shuttle and a space station. It was estimated that it could all have been done for the same price as the Apollo missions, which was about $24 billion. They asked President Nixon at a bad time, and he said that we could not afford it and could they do something for half the price? They went back and pondered the idea. Considering the two aspects of the proposal, the space station and the shuttle, the station was the easier of the two, so they decided to do it last. Thus the decision was made to start the shuttle program. They went back to the President and asked for $12 billion to build a reusable two stage shuttle. He had just devalued the dollar that day, so he said that we couldn't afford it, could they do something for half the price? They were ready this time, they had anticipated this tack and had prepared a proposal that consisted of the less desirable half disposable shuttle, which we had been using to great success. This plan was approved and has been flown successfully 24 times. The point of all of this is that while it may be good to save money, it is far better to do something right than risk this loss of life. Cutting funding does not make the program more economical, it makes it more hazardous. We must appeal to Congress to push for more money for NASA so that this tragedy can be prevented. We must not let this prove to be the death toll for the space program. As for the poor astronauts lost on this flight, some may call them couragous, but I believe that the people flying the next mission will really be the couragous ones. May God fly with them.