Calls to permanently ground Shuttle fleet.

--- Mitchell James
mejames@...
> My fear is the exact opposite. The spin being put
> on this by NASA and
> the media is that of the crew being martyrs to the
> cause of manned
> space flight and therefore the only response to this
> tragedy is more
> manned space flight. This sort of retoric is going
> to make it very
> difficult to have reasoned discussions.
> Mitchell James
> www.innertransit.org
>
> > I hope that the American public, and, of course,
> their opinion setters
> > (the
> > media) show some backbone. I fear the possibilty
> of the 'withdraw when
> > frightened' reflex of the same.
>
> AKA the CHALLENGER SYNDROM??? " Oh golly, we lost 7
people. Lets stick our heads in a bucket and wish it
all away." Let's see, there are 6.1 billion people on
this planet. Those 7 we just lost have already been
replaced a 1000 times over. We're in no danger of
running out of brave, skilled, gifted people. But
understand children, millions died to settle America,
and few complained about the loss of strangers. If we
continue to lose so few people in our exploitation of
space, it will be because we haven't committed to its
mastery and a hundred years from now we'll still be
playing in our freaking crib. As much as I dislike
George the Flaming Bush, I think he may actually keep
our public focus on the future. ,,,or not,,, wait and
see.