Why is it that a private company can send a ship into space and return it whole, yet (see details)?

Question

NASA can't manage to get a single vehicle into space without dropping a hundred tons of metal to be burned in the atmosphere, not to mention the countless times they seem to break something on the shuttle itself. Not only that, everytime a project begins that will improve and save money, it gets canceled.

Yet a private company sends a ship into space without losing so much as one speck of building material, then the entire ship, including the launch system returns to the ground un-scathed. It doesn't even have to go through the atmospheric burn that NASA still hasn't seemed to figure a way around.

This is where hundreds of billions of our tax dollars are going. They over spend, under budget, pay little tribute to advancement, and WASTE WASTE WASTE!

When will we vote to sell NASA to the private sector and begin making faster advancements?

Answer 1

The X-prize ship reach suborbital with a small payload (one pilot). NASA reaches orbital with a much larger payload (7 or so astronauts and thousands of punds on stuff). Plus, the private ships can take the information that NASA has learned and build upon it. I seriously doubt that any private ship would have reached suborbital altitude without the work that has been done by NASA over the last 50 years.

NASA has done many things well. But, the space shuttle was designed in the 1970's. Let us see what these private spaceships would do with 70's technology (even cutting edge 70's technology).

Answer 2

Your Best Fiend has it right...Space Ship One....and not to take anything away from Rutans wonderful accomplishment......is a one or two person ship that barely gets into space, but doesn't have the capability to orbit..it's up and down again....the Shuttle, the cream of 1970's technology, hauls seven people and tons of stuff to 200 miles plus and can stay up for weeks.....the comparison is between a two person glider and a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane.

Rhutan and everyone else has built upon the work of NASA and 50 years of space flight knowledge.

The real question is: NASA has any number of next generation space planes ready to be built...stuff that is as far advanced to the Shuttle as a 757 is to a DC-3....why hasn't any administration, Republican or Democrat built it? Because the voters haven't made it a priority .

We have the capability TODAY to send colonization flights to Mars.........like Jamestown and the Mayflower, they'd be one way and there will be casualties, but no one is pushing Congress to do it.......until the Chinese launch their mission in ten years and then it will be too late.....

Answer 3

well... I bet that private aircraft cost a few billion... between design, construction and everything... NASA probably didn't have that laying around...

but the other issue here is... there is no other governmental craft... that we know of... they seem to be spending a lot of money on the same old ships... if they are spending them on the same ships? They may be doing something on the side over there...

Answer 4

The ship that you are referring to did not go out as far as NASA does. Second they were not carrying a payload. Third they were not traveling as fast as NASA ships on re-entry (the need for heat shields). Please go and research the subject.

Answer 5

Eh, i think NASA reality TV is as retarded as Survivor or The Real World. Need some drama you know... Or America isn't interested.

Answer 6

Because NASA has been hijacked by the Bush administration and coporate interests - so it doesn't matter how lousy a design is and how many better ones there are out there. Money talks.

Answer 7

. mixture the ashes with the Chlorofluorocarbon referred to as Freon and launch the mixture. That stuff shows it quite is way as much as the stratosphere all on it quite is very own to integrate with ozone. Your ancestors ashes won't in basic terms be in area they are going to be in charge for depleting the shielding layers around our planet. Low power technique

Answer 8

Government red tape.