*** U. S. [government] "SPACE HISTORY 101" = WATER on Earth's Moon WAS DISCOVERED by "Clementine " - orbited from "The Bat Cave" at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory [NRL], NOT NASA!
"The NRL then proposed "CLEMENTINE II" - Fast-multiple robotic fly-bys of meteoroids and NASA op[posed it! Then- U. S. President BILL [OR = "Slick Willie" to his home state Arkansans] CLINTON backed NASA!
Later NASA ADMINISTRATOR DAN GOLDIN termkinating the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works [Palmdale, CA] "X-33 = Single Stage to Orbit / Recoverable Launch Vehicle [SSTO/RLV]" then slated as replacement for the aging shuttle orbiter fleet.
THE "X-33" program was 95% done - when Goldin pulled the funding plug - when the "X-33" WAS READY FOR FLIGHT TESTING of PROTOTYPES!
Goldin was rumored to have been successfully lobbied by NASA Astronauts, who belatedly realized "The X-33" had robotic Flight Control Systems - and they(!) = America's vaunted, over-rated NASA astronauts' corps = would be out of a job!
NEVER MIND that "NASA astronauts" earn their wings WITHOUT FLYING IN SPACE, unlike U. S. Commercial Space Sector!
SINCE THEN = "The AUGUSTINE COMMISSION" report has been cast in stone, by President OBAMA - quite correctly!
THE FUTURE of the U. S. manned space program is steadily in the commercial space arena, where engineers and system planners have NOT LOST THEIR GUTS - then BECOME SURLY, IN-EPT BUREAUCRATS - as in NASA today!
"The NRL then proposed "CLEMENTINE II" - Fast-multiple robotic fly-bys of meteoroids and NASA op[posed it! Then- U. S. President BILL [OR = "Slick Willie" to his home state Arkansans] CLINTON backed NASA!
Later NASA ADMINISTRATOR DAN GOLDIN termkinating the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works [Palmdale, CA] "X-33 = Single Stage to Orbit / Recoverable Launch Vehicle [SSTO/RLV]" then slated as replacement for the aging shuttle orbiter fleet.
THE "X-33" program was 95% done - when Goldin pulled the funding plug - when the "X-33" WAS READY FOR FLIGHT TESTING of PROTOTYPES!
Goldin was rumored to have been successfully lobbied by NASA Astronauts, who belatedly realized "The X-33" had robotic Flight Control Systems - and they(!) = America's vaunted, over-rated NASA astronauts' corps = would be out of a job!
NEVER MIND that "NASA astronauts" earn their wings WITHOUT FLYING IN SPACE, unlike U. S. Commercial Space Sector!
SINCE THEN = "The AUGUSTINE COMMISSION" report has been cast in stone, by President OBAMA - quite correctly!
THE FUTURE of the U. S. manned space program is steadily in the commercial space arena, where engineers and system planners have NOT LOST THEIR GUTS - then BECOME SURLY, IN-EPT BUREAUCRATS - as in NASA today!
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