Comment: Re:Cue The Applause (Score 2) 100
I agree with almost everything you said.
"Just as the world went through a biplane phase, we have to go through a rocket phase."
During the "bi-plane phase" there were numerous builders, some even home built, that pushed the technology along. Before the war was the commerce and thrill seekers that funded these efforts and out of them we got some amazing innovations, and some deaths (it was prize money that sent folks across the Atlantic, not national pride).
This is the topic We get trouble by these days and I don't get it. Lindbergh was the first to cross the Atlantic (solo), but we don't talk about the many who died trying. Those that died in the early BeeGee racers were test pilots like the Yeagers to come later in military life. Bottom line, there was a lot of dying going on as the aviation technology grew, in part because the cost of entry was less expensive, and our society did not wring our hands over each death.
Along comes NASA, Government funding, cold wars and soon our position changes from low cost to unaffordable. Never was there a prize for commercial or individual achievements in space flight for the world wrapped "War" around the purpose and that is the most fleeting of reasons for growth. We also get the sense that even one life is too costly, because we've tied it to national pride, national image and By God if those boys die then it reflects badly on our country. Bullshit! The people who died in Columbia were not heros, they were astronauts doing their job. Had they even survived they still would not be heros for they used training to figure out how to survive (or equipment). I respect human life, but we got to stop this direction that space and those who attempt to go are gods, protected at all costs. No, I would not put my ass in some home grown experiment and get launched into space (I prefer my technology use more mature). but I will applaud anyone who takes the chance, weighs the options, and goes. Even that failure would teach us more then we learn at the glacial pace taken today.
My hats off to SpaceX, I wish them success, but I also wish more people tried or were encouraged for out of 100 or 1000, there might be one that finds a working model for the next step in space.