[Normy]

When I lived in Orlando, I used to watch them from my front yard. Night launches are spectacular!

Best places to watch this death-trap take off? The bridges across the Indian river.

This aircraft has lots of problems, and I cannot help but think that these problems [centering on the thermal insulation] could have been solved with a second generation of this vehicle. i wanted to fly it bad when I was a kid, but these days I'm not sure I'd fly it if offered a chance. You really don't "fly" this vehicle, you simply monitor it, kind of like an Airbus. But I'm not convinced that it is safe any more, that is what bothers me.

We will never explore space until we come up with an easy and obvious and safe and economical substitute for chemical rockets. I suspect that we will never do this, and "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" will remain fantasies. We will put humans on Mars, some moons of Jupiter, and perhaps even Pluto...but other than that we cannot leave. Space travel is extremely difficult.

N!