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- From: KitchenRN@ssd0.laafb.af.mil
- Newsgroups: sci.space
- Subject: Re:Moon Dust, Soviet Disasters
- Message-ID: <C0G072.M2s.1@cs.cmu.edu>
- Date: 6 Jan 93 17:15:41 GMT
- Article-I.D.: cs.C0G072.M2s.1
- Sender: news+@cs.cmu.edu
- Distribution: sci
- Organization: [via International Space University]
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- soc1070@CRABAPPLE.SRV.CS.CMU.EDU (Tim Harincar) writes, re NASA profitability:
- >I thought part of the initial selling point of the
- >shuttle was that NASA could recapture its investment through the "putting
- >stuff in orbit" business.
- >
- >What about the big RCA logo on the Delta rockets (as seen in "the
- >Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space Technology")? I hope RCA had to pay
- >for that.
- >
- >I am not trying to start an arguement or anything, it just seems that
- >what you said seems to contridect some of the things I've seen from
- >NASA. And the wonderful publications - I hope you make money on those,
- >it would be stupid not to.
-
- Isn't NASA a "not-for-profit" organization? I can see them recouping (sp?)
- their costs, but not making a profit off of them.
-
- And Dennis Newkirk <dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com> writes, re Soviet space
- disasters:
-
- >Yes. This last one sounds like stories about the Soyuz 1 accident.
- >There were rumors for years about someone listening to Komarov
- >as he decended to Earth and the parachutes failed (this part is true,
- >he was the first spaceflight fatality). Its very unlikely his wife
- >would even have been in contact during his short and troubled mission.
- >Also, for any manned spacecraft yet constructed I'm sure it would be
- >impossible to reach the Sun by a failed retro burn, there just isn't
- >enough performance. It's probably impossible to even intentionally fly
- >to the Sun.
-
- Reading the discussions of this topic, especially the part about the
- cosmonaut's wife listening in as he goes crashing into the sun, reminds me of
- the David Bowie song, "Major Tom." Any idea if the song was based on this
- story?
-