wow, thats really interesting. why is it I never have mod points when I really want them?

he may not have a beard, but he does have an epic mustache!

Kickstarter, anyone?

exactly right, and in fact, the only thing that has kept the soviet, er, russian space program alive thus far was a decision by the Clinton administration in the post cold war era to allow US companies to launch their spacecraft on non US launch vehicles and to make space station Freedom (remember that?) into the ISS with the US paying Russia provide flights to it

Actually, in this case, the federal government IS mainly responsible for the success of IBM. Herman Hollerith won a contract from the US Census Bureau to provide machines to tabulate the 1890 census. That contract essentially ensured the success of the company which became IBM.

Determining total program costs for any DOD weapons system is a full scale research project. The money is appropriated in so many different piles and accounted for so many different ways its really hard to follow.

I tried to do this for the Titan program and failed miserably. I already have a full time job.

Camp Century appears to have been very similar to the original South Pole Station built in 1956-1957 for the IGY by the US Navy, minus the nuclear reactor and the plan for the Dr. Strangelove missile complex.

The Navy did install a small nuclear reactor at McMurdo Station, which leaked, requiring a large chunk of the hill that it was located on to be excavated and hauled away for disposal.

yeah, the guys that designed the corrective optics, the mechanism that deployed them, all the tooling, processes and procedures that were needed to install them and trained the astronauts didn't matter at all. It was all Story. Yup, he's the real hero.

The real driver behind the repair missions was this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Cepollina

who's going to be in bluffdale? almost nobody. Security, facility maintenance, remote hands and thats about it. The rest of the folks will be in your way on Rt 32 on their way home from work. Srsly, they are building office buildings where the Ft. Meade golf course used to be. Who do you think is going to be working in those?

those horseless carriages are just overpriced toys and they'll never amount to anything. For serious work, I'll take a horse and carriage any day!

seriously, you guys ought to listen to yourselves sometime.