Ghetto Space Craft?

Question

Is it me or is the space shuttle Discovery one of the most ghetto looking vehicles in existence? I once owned a twenty year old Toyota that had less Bondo than that crap. OK, maybe it's not Bondo, but damn. The burn marks from the last 6 reentries are still visible & the replacement tiles don't even match the old ones. It's like having your driver side door replaced and never repainting it. Come on, splurge for the Earl Scheib basic shuttle special. At least the get the damned thing one solid color.

Yes, we know that you can't take the sh1t to the shuttle wash or the soap & water might make the tiles fall off. But there has got to be some way to clean it. NASA, have you no shame? Do you want the other space faring nations to mock the jalopy you put-put into space in? You can do a lot better than this. Do you really want to be outdone by the Japanese with this too? Soon we will have rice burner Space craft, & then what will you do? Build a space shuttle escort hatchback edition?

Answer 1

Well said. You know, I was shocked to learn that NASA spent $93 BILLION to build the Space Station! That's highway robbery. I'm sure if they paid some other country it would have cost a fraction of that.

For that kind of money, the U.S. could've bought the Russian Energia spacecraft, the Buran I and II, and started hauling water and supplies to the Moon. $@%# the space station, they wasted 25 years building that piece of space junk. They should've spent the money on hiring engineers and scientists to build ATMOSPHERES on Mars and on the Moon, now that they've discovered 169 moons in our Solar System.

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Answer 2

Dayum, gurl. That Sh!t ain't right. That shuttle done got all nasty but that ain't no thing to pimp out that biotch. Smack it up with some gold and some neon and nail a kit to that futhermucker. You just n-e-e-d a spoiler and then some spinning rims and a gold-nugget license plate. Pump it up with a boom tube so you can force the Cosmonauts to listen to you kick-a$$ beats and you be space-stylin', a'ight?

Answer 3

I always thought the space shuttle looked like a kluge. The Saturn-V was one elegant looking rocket! But the astronauts will tell you that the shuttle is MUCH more comfortable to ride in than the Apollo space craft. Even it it is not safer.

Answer 4

Problem is that the shuttle is our space SUV.
Salesman told us we'd save by having only one vehicle to do everything (carry satellites, take the kids to the space station...).
Now, we can't afford the upkeep.

We need a "Smart" shuttle and, maybe, a flashy sports model for when we need to get there in a hurry and impress the martianettes.

Answer 5

NASA feels the blemishes give Discovery character.

Like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars.

Answer 6

David Bowie, Star Odyssey just to start... The music in Flash Gordon movie...

Answer 7

Meh, the fleet is retiring in a little over two years from now. Then we go to the Orion and one time use spacecraft. It will be nice and shiny for ya.