dtb said:
"Hell, my pet counterfactual is that we might not even have had moon landings if Kennedy had lived. By 1966 it was clear that we'd basically won the space race (even the Soviets could pull a few stunts), the Sputnik scare had been replaced with teh reality of Apollo budget, and Vietnam was starting to eat up money."
--- end quote ---
I agree. I suspect what saved Apollo was Kennedy's assassination. Johnson as Vice President was the political architect behind the Apollo program. He had invested a lot of himself into it. Also Johnson had successfully reconfigured the Space Program into a huge pork barrel machine for the South, e.g. Johnson Space Center in Texas, etc. As long as Johnson was President, Apollo would move forward. No wonder that as soon as Nixon replaced Johnson as President, the political system began to disassemble the Space Program.
Gary
Space/Science » in reply to re: I agree
Once again, I must agree
The whole thread (44 posts)
- Mike Griffin's road map to Mars
- I think rocket technology is about as good as it's going to get
- Other good points
- I agree
- The 30+ years hasn't been a complete waist.
- re: I agree
- Could the shuttles be redesigned?
- I agree