> Not only that, but the Columbia _is_ going up RSN, so if anything
else went
> wrong, I'm sure that the first thing NASA would do is order it to
pick up
> the Astro-and-Cosmonauts and return home.  
> 
> The plain fact is that we don't yet have the tech to be able to
send up a
> shuttle whenever we feel like it.

	Unfortunately, we DO have the Tech to be able to send up a shuttle
whenever we feel like it.  NASA just no longer has the budget to do
so. Oh... recall the 60's when all the government was concentrating
on was Space Exploration.
	To think, a thing like Cold Fusion gripped the entire planet!  Hell,
most Americans don't even know when Mir went operational.  Hey,
another thing to mention is that in all our interest in space, Mir is
a RUSSIAN space station.  Our little group of independent states is
making better progress than we are.

Adam Chris Leigh
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-Tempest "Quoth the Raven, Nevermore..." -Edgar Allen Poe
Poet, Writer, Philospher, and Hopeless Romantic.<Omicron@sprynet.com>
http://dogbert.simplenet.com/Tempest/  <Fanfic Section Now UP!!!>
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