Just an Earth-Bound Misfit: The Rantings of an Aging, Armed, Pinko Chick

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"Thou Shalt Get Sidetracked by Bullshit, Every Goddamned Time." -- The Ghoul

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck,
"FOFF" = Felonious Old Fat Fuck,
"COFF" = Convicted Old Felonious Fool,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset,
A/K/A P01135809, A/K/A Dementia Donnie, A/K/A Felon^34,
A/K/A Dolt-45, A/K/A Don Snoreleone

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Back to the Future? Forward to the Past?

Boeing is using Atlas rockets for its new space capsule.

Interesting, considering that it has been nearly fifty years since an Atlas rocket was first used to loft a space capsule.

8 comments:

Nangleator said...: I'm sure Boeing and every other American company is incapable of reaching, never mind surpassing, America's 1960s technology.

That was a different country. Same name, but different spirit, philosophy, leadership...

They were troglodytes, socially speaking, but they could literally put a man on the moon.; 8/07/2011 9:54 AM
bob said...: It's not your father or grand fathers Atlas. The old Atlas D could get around 4000 pounds into LEO. Low Earth Orbit. The Atlas III could get 23,630 pounds into LEO, and the Atlas 5 can chunk a max of 64,860 pounds into LEO. Other than the name the only other common element is the balloon tank design.; 8/07/2011 10:17 AM
Sarah said...: Geeze, Nagleator. Things aren't that bad, and I'm pretty sure Boeing and lots of other American companies are capable of surpassing 1960's technology. Electronics, computers (my industry), aeronautics and lots of other companies have made juuust a bit of progress since 1969.

Economically, we're going to go through a rough patch getting past peak oil starvation. Things are going to get better... eventually. I hope I live long enough to see it.; 8/07/2011 11:43 AM
Nangleator said...: I'm grumpy sometimes, Sarah. Catch me on a better day.

I also think the tapering off of petroleum supplies might mean the death of billions, depending upon how sharply it falls off. Or is made to fall off.; 8/07/2011 10:16 PM
BadTux said...: Uhm, Sarah, the Atlas V is powered by Russian engines, basically half-scale versions of the Energia engines the Soviets designed for launching their clone of our Space Shuttle. Maybe Americans can design and build rocket engines of that size still, but there's no evidence of that.

We can still design and build computers and cars and jet airplanes. Well, parts of jet airplanes (Boeing's new Dreamliner is being built all over the world, only final assembly is in the USA). But the big stuff appears behind us. We can't even build bridges anymore -- you know the new spans of the San Francisco Bay Bridge that is going up in California? They floated their way across the ocean from... uhm... CHINA. 'Cause we can't build things like that here in America anymore.

'Nuff said.

- Badtux the Gloomy Penguin; 8/07/2011 10:44 PM
bob said...: When NASA, decide back in the eighties that the Shuttle was to be the ONLY program along with Air Force pulled the plug on the Expendable Launch Vehicle program, the companies that got creamed were the engine manufactures, Aerojet, and Rocketdyne,since not only were their R&D programs destroyed, they also had no one buying the engines they could produce. When the powers that be realized via the loss of Challenger, that they were screwed, and restarted the ELV programs, this time without redesigned engines they had to go else where for the engines. That and Russian lower labor costs are why we now have Russian Engines in the Atlas.; 8/08/2011 7:40 AM
Comrade Misfit said...: Similar concerns about loss of expertise are some of the reasons why the Navy is trying to get the design work funded for the follow-on to the Ohio class. If they don't keep the designers gainfully employed, then that skill will evaporate.

The Brits have the same problem; they've pissed away their ability to design subs.

"Use it or lose it."; 8/08/2011 8:41 AM
Sarah said...: Good points, esp. about the Russian kerosene/O2 RD-180. I was just reacting to Nangleator's gloom about "every American company".; 8/08/2011 10:10 AM