There can be few objects whose alleged imminent death has been cheered by so many so vocally bar perhaps Saddam Hussein’s statue in 2003 or one of those boats they floated in the Coliseum where they apparently recreated ancient sea battles 20 centuries ago in imperial Rome. But the criticism of NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle must be on a par
With US Air Force memos making claims about exploding Ares I first stages (126 Shuttle missions and not one SRB has exploded so why do they worry so?) and newspaper articles about launch abort systems taking longer to design – what the article doesn’t mention is that you can’t close a LAS design until you know what mass (hello, Orion project office?) it is definitley lifting – the staff of NASA’s Ares projects office might be feeling like the Christians that the Romans so happily fed to Lions, again in the Coliseum
It has to be said that the English language pro-spaceflight community’s blogosphere (which is overwhelmingly American) is broadly in agreement (see here, here, here and here as examples) over what future Ares I should have, i.e,. none. Sorry NASA but your blog postings don’t quite balance things out…
But not to worry as Hyperbola is setting itself on a trajectory to put forward counter arguments (hopefully better ones than NASA has put forward to date) to the blogosphere barrage and give reasons as to why Ares I will survive the US human spaceflight plans review
