CompuServe Messages

Leslie, with the proper safeguards, it's still a usuable notion. In case you haven't examined the engineering data for the shuttle, they expect one in fifty (yes, 1 in 50) launches to fail catestrophically. Sadly, that is more due to the bastardized design of the shuttle than modern rocketry. If you examine the data for launch failures for rockets, you will also find a high failure rate. This is mostly due to inexperience on the part of the launch crews (hey, the shuttle works, mostly) and the age of the boosters. It was only recently that the firms concerned manufactured new boosters, which, I believe, are not on the 'firing line' yet. Do not misjudge the space program or a program for disposing of waste products into the sun on the basis of current performance by NASA. They have only recently put their sh*t in one sock. 🙁 Brian Bartlett