Comment CEV Vs. SpaceShipOne (Score 2, Insightful) 194
I recently read an article in the UK magasine "Focus" which outlined NASA's ditching of the shuttle over more Apollo style rocket+capsule launch systems. After all the effort they've put into the shuttle it looks like NASA has decided that "space plane" style vehicles just simply isn't economically feasible, and will never become the cheaply reusable vehicle they had hoped for.
Yet at the same time the private sector is clearly getting close to achieving success at the 100km mark. I realise this is very different from the kind of application NASA will be needing out of their kit - but surely the shear potential of such space access would make it worth NASA pursuing further.
It seems to be that all the advances that have been made by the shuttle will be lost when NASA takes a step back to using the capsule+rocket method.
Yet at the same time the private sector is clearly getting close to achieving success at the 100km mark. I realise this is very different from the kind of application NASA will be needing out of their kit - but surely the shear potential of such space access would make it worth NASA pursuing further.
It seems to be that all the advances that have been made by the shuttle will be lost when NASA takes a step back to using the capsule+rocket method.
