[extropy-chat] NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake

[BillK]

<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-09-27-nasa-griffin-interview_x.htm>

Asked Tuesday whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin said,
"My opinion is that it was. ... It was a design which was extremely
aggressive and just barely possible." Asked whether the space station
had been a mistake, he said, "Had the decision been mine, we would not
have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're
building it in."

The shuttle has cost the lives of 14 astronauts since the first flight
in 1982. Roger Pielke Jr., a space policy expert at the University of
Colorado, estimates that NASA has spent about $150 billion on the
program since its inception in 1971. The total cost of the space
station by the time it's finished — in 2010 or later — may exceed $100
billion, though other nations will bear some of that.
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So, what might they have done with 25 years and 250 billion dollars?????

BillK