>>1479655>Not an argumentStill better than your usual fare.
>Yeah, it's just an opinion piece thoughCan you refute anything it says?
>ConjectureCongress, the President, and OMB decide NASA's budget. If they don't provide/approve funds, it ain't happening. Obama soft-cancelled Constellation by not including funding for it in the budget. The STS extension from 2010 to 2011 was done by Congress without any NASA request.
>Conjecture Everything you say is a one word non-response or conjecture. "I feel like NASA decides its own budget, and that NASA administrators are all 'rocket scientists' rather than career bureaucrats.
>Again, opinionEach orbiter was designed for a 100 mission service life. 135 total missions were flown. Five orbiters were built, with at most four (later three) operational at any given time. 5 * 100 = 500.
>Nixon stated that NASA should stress civilian applications but should not hesitate to note the military uses as well. He showed interest in the possibility of routine operations and quick reaction times, for he saw that these could allow the Shuttle to help in disasters such as earthquakes or floods. >He liked the fact that ordinary people would be able to fly in the Shuttle, who would not be highly-trained astronauts. He asked if the Shuttle was a good investment, and agreed that it was indeed, for it promised a tenfold reduction in the cost of space flight. He added that even if it was not a good investment, the nation would have to do it anyway, because space flight was here to stay. >Nixon himself, however, decided that it would be better to refer to the vehicle in the usual fashion, as the "Space Shuttle." Earlier piloted spacecraft had carried names such as Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, but the new one would break with this practice.> The Shuttle carried Nixon's personal stamp because it carried his personal decision.pic from
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4221/ch9.htm 