Cull all IT Contractors (and PMs) under 35

[BlackenedBiker]

Er, wot?

I thought they were going back to non-reusable capsules thingys. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it's not a 'new shuttle'.

I thought that a new design programme was underway and that NASA would be working with the Ruskies to launch using Soyuz vehicles in the interrim.

I might be wrong though.....

[MrMark]

When's Concorde coming back?

[sasguru]

So to summarise - its only the West where exciting space adventures seem to have stalled - the Indians, Chinese and Russians are all ploughing ahead?

Seems about right.

[BlackenedBiker]

So to summarise - its only the West where exciting space adventures seem to have stalled - the Indians, Chinese and Russians are all ploughing ahead?

Seems about right.

Bring back the cold war and MAD.

Ah the Good OLD Days when people were INSANE.

None of this international co-operation

[HairyArsedBloke]

I thought that a new design programme was underway and that NASA would be working with the Ruskies to launch using Soyuz vehicles in the interrim.

I might be wrong though.....

If anyone gives a frak: linky

[Mich the Tester]

When's Concorde coming back?

I saw that Concorde programme on TV last night; such a shame that among all the make believe money that's been printed to rescue our mad banking system there wasn't just a tiny fraction available to keep Concorde in the air long enough to develop a worthy successor. It remains one of the greatest technological achievements in human history, but was killed by politics and bean counters.

[Mich the Tester]

Ummmmmmmm, what about

The international space station
The Shuttle
The new Shuttle - in development
The Hubble Space telescope
The Large Binocular Telescope
The LHC
The Phoenix Mars Mission

All of these have been achieved in the time since the Mercury and Apollo programmes.

And the next generation will take our species to the edge of the solar system.

We, as a species, are moving at the rate that is unsurpassed in known species development.

Don't believe me, just think how annoying you find it waiting for your TomTom (other satnav systems available) to load up...........grrrrr. Now think about your Commodore 64 and how long that took to load donkey kong.

Now that is progress.....

You're absolutely right; your examples are brilliant pieces of technology. But my point isn't that we're incapable of doing these things. It's more about the perception among public, politicians and businesspeople of what constitutes a good use of money. It's linked to my theory that economists and bankers have no idea what to do with money. For the price of saving a couple of high street banks, techies could have given us a fleet of supersonic airliners to take all the Olympic athletes to Kennedy airbase, a fleet of Saturn V rockets to take them into space and hold the Olympics on the moon. Oh, and we'd throw in an Internet for free so they could send e-mails home. OK, it's a bit of an exaggeration (or is it?) but my point is that I think techies are better at managing and investing money than the people who are paid to do so. Who would you rather give umpty gazillion pounds? Economists or engineers?

[sasguru]

It remains one of the greatest technological achievements in human history, but was killed by politics and bean counters.

Wrong. It was killed because it didn't make money.

HTH

[RichardCranium]

Who would you rather give umpty gazillion pounds? Economists or engineers?

Politician: "I have umpty gazillion pounds of taxpayers' money to burn. What will you do with it?"

Engineer: "Spend it on inventing new, shiny toys to make everybody happy."

Financier: "Give you 1% and piss the rest against the wall".

What would the politician do?

[Mich the Tester]

Wrong. It was killed because it didn't make money.

HTH

It did ultimately make money for BA, and it would have made bags of money if not for that nasty combination of shortsighted environmentalistm and politics. The trouble with environmentalists is that they campaign against some piece of technology in it's infancy before it's actually been developed far enough to improve its environmental credentials. It never reached the stage of development that other aircraft have achieved.