Dale.Amon@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (04/04/89)
> I would be interested in clarification here. Do you mean that Boeing, or some > other aerospace company, wanted to 'take over' our manned space flight > program? I'm not sure that any company, or consortium of companies, has any Where have you been the last decade? There have been at least two efforts to commercialize the shuttle that had sufficient financial backing to do it. NASA filibustered them both because NASA had no INTENTION of letting go. The first venture was with William Sword and FEDEX. The second was Astrotech with Willard Rockwell. I am an acquaintance of the former president of Astrotech (he was my "big name" co-chair for the 1987 SDC) and was at one point told by him that the shuttle launch costs would drop by half on the day they took over. Unfortuneately they never got the chance to try. I suspect that the death blow to their effort was the fact that Jim Fletcher went back to NASA. He had been on their board of directors here in Pittsburgh and it would not have looked good... > nobody there. That's why I called the idea impractical. Only governments can > afford to fund this kind of scientific research right now. Bullshit. ON ANOTHER FRONT: > Just saw an Associated Press story claiming that James Fletcher > will be returning to the University of Utah to Head the states > efforts to I had not heard, but not surprising. My old address book listing for him says: OLDREF: University of Pittsburgh (Whitehead Professor Of Energy Research and Technology (84-3/86)) So why not?