VLSI@DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix (06/04/82)
From: John Redford <VLSI at DEC-MARLBORO>
Keeping NASA independent of the military for 25 years has been a remarkable
accomplishment. Does anybody out there know how it was done? Considering
that the bulk of rocketry research is military, and that NASA is perpetually
short of funds, it amazes me that NASA wasn't absorbed by the Air
Force long ago. Now with all this talk about Space Command and the budget
hawks swooping in, NASA's future as a civilian outfit looks bleak.
With regard to the security of the shuttle ("someone with a high-power
rifle could bring it down"), that's probably why they're building a
launch facility out at Vandenberg (sp?). Some Cuban in a motor boat
could probably take out a launch at Cape Canaveral.
On a another subject entirely, does anyone know what the "solar
optical satellite" that the UK, the US, and the Germans are putting up
is supposed to do? Does it have anything to do with power generation,
or is it more for solar astronomy?
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