"ORVAL FAIRAIRN" wrote in message
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In article IHWGe.226148$xm3.73811@attbi_s21,
StellaStarr wrote:

Andrew Gideon wrote:
wrote:


Well, maybe we'd whine less if it accomplished more. It took us less
than ten years to go from the atmosphere to the surface of the moon
and
back. 36 years later we've gone nowhere.


We were supposed to have this cheap reusable "pickup truck" as a cheap
and
reusable way to get stuff into low earth orbit.

It is, indeed, depressing.
Decades ago as a kid I was reading Heinlein books like "Rocket Summer,"
and knew even then that everybody lifting off from their backyards in
their own rockets wouldn't ever be a reality.

But it does feel like we made it to the moon and then just gave up the
venture into space, for the most part. Who knew once we finally leaped
off the planet, there'd be so much delay and so much nitpicking...and so
little further progress.

It's great, livin' in the future. We've got Jetsons ultralights and
Dick Tracy miniphones, but I sure wish we had Heinlein's Mars, and all
the rest.


The problem, of course is that it takes so damn much raw energy even to
make orbit, so the cost is astronomical.

Rutan has it partially figured out. Give him a couple of years and the
energy and cost problems are liable to be a thing of the past.