Thursday, June 09, 2011

Idle Thought

The Space Shuttle has been declared officially obsolete, 30 years after the design was first used to get people into (low) Earth orbit.

Not before time. We don't want our brave Astronauts zooming around in antiquated 7-seater spacecraft designs.

No, what is needed is a (hypothetical) new (as yet undesigned) replacement (as yet unfunded). Until then, our International Space Station-bound Astronauts will take advantage of the generous (and costly) help of our Russian friends to ferry them to and from the floating junkpile of science in the well-tested 3-seater Soyuz spacecraft.

A forty-five year-old design.