The political argument for the Shuttle-derived boosters was always the strongest. Mike Griffin's many cheerleaders cited them as an example of his political acumen. Even some critics accepted them as an inevitable result of the pork-barrel politics that keeps the manned space program alive in the absence of any real national need.But there hasn't been any outcry from space-district congressmen at these radical changes in a program that was supposedly optimized to satisfy them. Nobody is denouncing Mike Griffin for what seems to be a blatant example of bait-and-switch tactics.It's easy to see why. None of these changes actually diverts any money to another district.
kraisee - 22/5/2006 3:25 PMJeff Bell comes across as typical attention seeker journalist with an equally typical big ol' "My Rocket's Better Than Yours" stick up his butt.His personal choice wasn't selected and he's just being bitter towards NASA (and he's FAR from being the only one it seems). I personally consider his journalistic approach a joke and his opinions are biased towards his own self-worth, not any real benefit to the space program.Being that his articles only seem to contain bitter opinions, I personally think they are less worthwhile than most of the stuff on that really awful usspacenews.com site.People like Bell will kill political support for the entire VSE more efficiently than anthing else by simply creating a feeling of lack of confidence. Deliberately aiming to destroy confidence in NASA is irresponsible if he really supports that space program. If the politico's are given reason start to question the VSE, the game comes to an end.Lets not be handing the anti-space lobbyists any ammunitition.Ross.
wannamoonbase - 22/5/2006 6:37 PMAnyone with a silver bullet that will put 100+ mT into LEO please step forward.