What he said
I think it is possible to have VSE - exploration of the moon and beyond - and a program that would lower the cost to space. Damned fool dreamer, that's me.
Via.
However, as has been argued often here and in many other sites, flying
capsules on Shuttle derived expendables and building a hugely expensive
and seldom launched heavy lifter just isn't going to lower the cost of
space very much over what it is now. While halting the Shuttle program
now would help to fund a handful of space science missions, it would
not help overcome the long term limitations to space exploration and
development caused by the extremely high costs of getting to space.
Dr. Friedman should show more support for the entrepreneurial
commercial systems, and the NASA COTS program that will support them,
in hopes that they will come and save the day for space science.
I think it is possible to have VSE - exploration of the moon and beyond - and a program that would lower the cost to space. Damned fool dreamer, that's me.
Via.
