Re: What Is NASA's (Tourist) Problem?

From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Thu Apr 12 2001 - 16:17:19 MDT


On 12 Apr 2001, at 7:58, Technotranscendence wrote:

> On Wednesday, April 11, 2001 9:26 PM John Marlow johnmarlow@gmx.net wrote:
> > Anyone know what the hell their problem is with Tito? It's okay to
> > send a schoolteacher--but not a NASA-trained rocket scientist..?
>
> I've been wondering about that also, especially since they sent John Glenn
> back up too.
>
...

> Thus, if NASA says Tito'll get in the way that could be applied to Glenn or
> any political astronaut. Also, if he will get in the way, why not have him
> trained to do something -- if he isn't already scheduled to do more than
> just loaf around? Why opt immediately for a no go on Tito but a go on
> Glenn?

He was going to train w/Russians over here; NASA denied him access to
facilities--so whose fault is it if he's untrained, hmm?

>
> Another reason could be that NASA wants a certain image and that image does
> not include having tourists onboard.

They're gonna alienate the public.

  That kind of makes NASA look like
> Disney.

Disney doesn't run at a deficit.

...

> We must remember that NASA is a government agency, so it's incentives are
> not those of maximizing profits or being economically efficient.

Technically not, but yeah.
No cheers for this behavior on NASA's part.

jm

>
> Cheers!
>
> Daniel Ust
> http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
>

John Marlow



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