Spaced Out Government

There was a good Nova episode tonight about the Space Shuttle. I remember its gestation back in the early seventies. At first it sounded like a good idea -- a way to lower the cost of getting into orbit. But as they cut back on the size of the Space program after the moon landings, I remember getting into a discussion with a friend who was a physics teacher. I argued that it made no sense to spend a vast sum of money on an expensive new launch system when we were cutting back on the manned space program. It was fast becoming obvious that by the time the shuttle was operational, there would be no where for it to go and no money left to send it there. It seemed to me that we should just use the Saturn V "moon" rocket to put the heavy stuff up and a smaller rocket to put the manned element up.

Around that time NASA got rid of all the specialized jigs and equipment used in making the Saturn V. The conspiracy minded thought it was done so there would be no going back as the Shuttle ate up more and more of the space budget. Perhaps NASA needed to keep the rocket scientists and engineers busy. In any case, the imperative for the shuttle was no longer "space exploration." Apparently massive bureaucracies put in motion tend to keep going that way.


Well, after two space shuttle tragedies -- disasters designed into the system, as Nova pretty much put it -- and gazillions spent, guess what? To replace the Shuttle they'll build a heavy lift vehicle (even resurrecting much of the Saturn V design) as well as a smaller vehicle for putting humans into orbit.

Interestingly, they managed to blame private contractors who "turned the shuttle around" for part of the failure but never explained what it was they did wrong or forgot to do right. In fact, they failed to show any connection with the private contractors at all. This came from the folks who were hands on responsible. It's just a bureaucratic reflex, I guess -- just stupid blind prejudice at work: it's those cost cutting contractors, I tell you! Actually, complacent and sloppy inefficiencies were more likely the cause (and was that an "ozone friendly" insulating foam that fell of the shuttle in large junks during the launches?) .

In the near future our likely next President, Barack Obama, will launch many new and massive Federal Programs. But he does not appear to believe in The Doctrine of Unintended Consequences. Or perhaps he believes the bad consequences -- whether intended or not -- won't show up until he is gone. But the "bads" should be obvious to all non-journalists by 2016.