Shuttle costs

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Rick Fischer" wrote:
> Hello,
> Being new to this group, I tried to retain a general feeling about
the
> topic at hand. An older thread, but being I work at the Kennedy
Space
> Center, I'd like to hopefully air my views.
>
> It appears to me that the largest cost presently is not software,
but
> DOES have everything to do with hardware, fuels, maintenace, and
> safety issues. A quick breakdown if I could:
>
> Software: Software failures are few and far between. However, human
> error causes the failures that have occured. I know that sounds
> contradictory. If you realize that the private sector spends more
to
> lure the top percentile of software engineers and software
developers,
> it's not hard to figure that NASA, with its ever dwindling budget
> cannot compete.
>

Let's look at the software issue another way; how much money was
spent on the Mars probe that went AWOL? a billion? ...and all
because of one chunk of software was programmed incorrectly (foot-
pounds rather than Newtons)...

:) ed