Dan Goldin, also Dennis Tito

> I'm worried that humans may not
> return to the moon in my own lifetime ( and I have a
> lot of life left). The Chinese may succeed at this,
>
> Perhaps, but it's important to remember that the Chinese are right now
> where we were in the days leading up to the first Mercury flights. Of
> course it's always possible that they may progress from there to
> reusable space transportation systems more rapidly than we did, but
> they still have a long road to travel.
>
They Should be able to progress more rapidly as it has already been done
elsewhere, and once you know something can be done it is a lot easier
than thinking it might be able to be done. The other thing to remember
is that a lot of information from those programs is publicly available
and they have undoubtedly picked up some of what isn't publicly
available by other means. Using this information they should be able to
avoid most of the mistakes that were made in the pioneering programs. I
remember hearing a saying to this effect : "What once required genius,
becomes the work of a child" (I may not have remembered the saying
correctly but it is close enough)