The Shuttle safely on the ground!

I know what you mean- after watching two of them spontaneously self-destruct, I was on the edge of my seat during the latest launch and re-entry. The whole program should be scrapped.

Those ceramic tiles are the typical outcome, when some idea (reusability in this case) dominates over the engineers pragmatism (one time use). And the money wasted for "starwars" laser weapons would have certainly produced a more reliable substitute for the shuttle. Soon we will have to depend exclusivly on the Russian rockets. :-(

Planning? They put their first guy (Yang Liwei) into orbit back in October 2003 (and returned him safely). The next two-man* crew is scheduled to go up this October. Big month October, both double-ten day from the Nationalist era and the current Oct 1 National day.

Maybe it will goad 'others' into action. High ground and all that rot.

Their base rocket technology is similar to the Soyuz (somewhat larger). Not very innovative, but it seems to work okay, so far.

• Female would-be taikonauts are reportedly in the running. What better place to hold up half the sky?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

China is planning to put people up in the Long March rockets and eventually go to the moon. I think China should junk the moon project and instead try to mount a Hubble servicing shot. It would get them more note in the news and be of real use to Mankind.

I'll thank Buddha.

Dang sonic booms woke me up this morning!

Don't forget ESA's Arianes.

Graham

Hey, Fred, we agree on something!

John

The world held it's breath this week as 7 sub-mariners resurfaced and 7 astronauts resurfaced.

I guess 7 is a lucky number after all!!

Cheers.

The Shuttle should have been designed with a separable, encapsulated cockpit section with a one-time heatshield and parachutes. Had this been done both Challenger and Columbia crews probably would have survived.

The US should go the distance and design a two-part, fully reusable system with a carrier aircraft using proven SR-71 technology-precision machined titanium thinwall structure and two big bleed bypass turbojets. If we aren't willing to do that, go back to one-time-use rockets using existing SRBs.

If the Chinese start a Cold War with us, it's to the benefit of Americans in the long run-we can win, and it would force us to re-industrialize and develop manufacturing again. I almost hope they do it.

Or else just announce they will take it as salvage, and wait to see what we do.