More on the future of NASA

[unixronin]

smandal pointed me at this excellent analysis on Ars Technica.

Regarding the initial news reports, I don't know that it's so much that the reports were intentionally slanted, so much as that they were written from the viewpoint of the general news media's typical appalling ignorance about science: they don't even know enough about the subject to know what parts are actually important.  They don't understand why in-space refuelling matters.  Heavy lift capability is funny science words to them.  They don't understand the technical shortcomings of ARES.  But "The entire Constellation program is cancelled"?  THAT, they understand.  So that's what they reported.

Comments

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Alright, I can work with that. I guess my info on the SR-71 lacked certain specifics. I checked the Wiki on it, and your data matches theirs.

But I thought I remembered reading a report on the final journey of the SR-71 that is now in the Smithsonian - that it made the trip from near LA to DC in roughly an hour. Mapquest calls that a 2674.44 mile trip. True, it's not "as the Blackbird flies" - but passing between radar "gates" at St. Louis and Cincinnati (as reported in the Wiki article) isn't a straight-line flight either. It looks to me like their 67 minute flight (again, according to Wikipedia) was a heck of a lot faster than an average of 2,190 mph.

But, who knows? I could be completely wrong, since I'm half-blasted on liquid pain killers (JD) and needing sleep in a big way. I welcome your corrections to my facts, for when I'm alert enough to process them.

Still, it remains that you are right - it won't do escape velocity, won't go high enough, and can't operate outside the atmosphere.