Quote:You could spin that so that that _is_ all she wrote. The U.S. Gummint halts development on Constellation, since __we__ are already doing it better.
So by 2012 NASA will be grounded (in OTL until Constellation/Orion get running, in Fenspace that's all she wrote).
Quote:I can see //Pegasus//, but I'm not seeing a lock-stock-barrel buyout of NASA. But.. a tired old orbiter intercepted from the boneyard..
As much fun as Noah Scott buying the NASA trademarks sounds, this isn't really a situation that megabucks can solve. To get NASA back in the game is going to require cunning, deceit and a deep & abiding love of the American manned spaceflight program.
2012 - the Year the Shuttles Came Home
launch the Pegasus in early March, launch //Enterprise//, //Discovery//, //Endeavor//, and //Atlantis// throughout the rest of the year as people get the idea and buy/beg/steal Shuttle carcasses and finish rebuilds..
And on the evening of December 25th, on a pillar of fire, the scavenged and custom-work and duct tape and kludge that is the Last American Space Shuttle rises from the Nevada desert.. and //Challenger// joins the rest of Us.
Now.. given this theory.. if someone raises //Pegasus// in 2012.. I _Will_ get me carcass or spares or testing equipment and rebuild a shuttle and call it //Challenger//.. That bird did too much damage to the American space program to die forever.. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979