Space vehicle launches today:
U.S. 1,
North Korea 0. Leave it to one of the most back-assward countries on the planet to make our failed space program look good.
Good ol’ North Korea. Boy, I could go on forever about those douche-bags. Perhaps one day when I have enough time to collect my thoughts I might publish a post or three devoted to just how fucked up these guys are. For now, I’ll restrict myself to the discussion of their pathetic excuse for a missile program.
Of the several missiles that were launched today, the
Taepodong-2 is North Korea’s most advanced. To the best of my knowledge, the Taepodong-2 is little more than a SCUD with two booster stages attached to it in an attempt to convert it from a Theater Ballistic Missile to an ICBM or Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. In order for it to function as such, it must be capable of delivering its payload to sustained sub orbital altitudes (that is to say, into space) making it technically a space vehicle… albeit a rather primitive one.
The technology employed is very rudimentary by western standards. The core vehicle, the SCUD, is an early ‘50’s era Soviet design which in turn was merely a improvement of the old German V2 designed by Dr. Werner Von Braun during World War II. Apparently, the North Koreans are have a difficult time overcoming technical issues that were solved in both the United States and the Soviet Union nearly fifty years ago. The whole situation would be laughable if they weren’t also in possession of as many as ten functional thermonuclear weapons. This means that if they ever can make this contraption work, they will have the theoretical capability of nuking targets within the continental United States.
They just might be dumb enough to do it. Don’t underestimate just how delusional these people are. The isolated and thoroughly brainwashed North Korean people have a view of the world that most of us would find amusing if they weren’t so damned well armed. For example, an acquaintance of mine traveled to Pyongyang several years ago. While there, he was given a tour of their national museum which featured an elaborate display commemorating the first men to walk on the moon. Yes, the people of North Korea are told with a straight face by their government that North Korean astronauts (or cosmonauts or whatever… it doesn’t matter since they don’t even have a space program) were the first to ever set foot on the Lunar surface… conveyed there by a vehicle that looked uncannily like the Eagle lander of the Apollo program (which we all know was an elaborate hoax and never actually made it to the moon, but rather was filmed on a sound stage in Pasadena).
By contrast,
our rocket worked. I wouldn’t get too exited though; we are still far from where we should be in our space program. Although the launch of the shuttle Discovery (STS121) was successful today, it is plainly apparent that this technology is no longer viable as a space launch platform. The shuttle program was launched in the 1970’s as a successor to the hugely successful Apollo program (also designed by Von Braun). At the time it was thought that a reusable orbiter system would be a much more versatile and cost effective alternative to the disposable (single flight) spacecraft then in use. While a good idea in theory, it has been less than perfect in practice. While the shuttle is technically reusable, most of its systems must be completely overhauled between missions, which equates to a cost of about $55 million per launch. It has never been as reliable as it was intended to be (it was supposed to average twelve flights a year!) and is at least a dozen years past its life expectancy with it’s immediate replacement still on the drawing board.
Another major drawback is the overly complex arrangement of the vehicle. The use of intricate (and very thirsty) turbo pump fed liquid hydrogen engines in conjunction with a pair non throttled solid fueled booster rockets is far too complicated a system for reliable regular use. Since the destruction of the Columbia in 2003, NASA has been in a panic about the insulating foam on the external fuel tank. Apparently, it has a tendency to break off and damage the heat shields of the orbiter, rendering it vulnerable upon re-entry. Well, DUH! The original designers new about this problem thirty years ago! Those of you old enough to recall the maiden flight of Columbia in 1981 may remember that fuel tank was white, not red. This was because it was designed with a protective coating to prevent just the kind of disaster that befell the very same ship nearly twenty-two years later. Then some bean counters decided that by eliminating this feature, payload weight could be increased while turnaround time an expense could be mitigated. Great idea on paper…
It is obvious to me that NASA has totally lost its way. The career government bureaucrats currently running the show have choked the life out of an organization which used to represent the pioneering spirit of mankind. We can and must do better.
When the Shuttle was designed there were no cell phones or personal computers. No DVD or MP3 players. Hell, cable TV and VCR’s were unheard of. Back then, the space program was synonymous with cutting edge technology. Nowadays, the average American carries much more impressive devices in their pockets.
If I may wax political (and I may, since it’s my fucking blog) it’s high time the government got the hell out of the space business. It is far too inefficient to run it effectively. I don’t say this lightly; I’ve been working for the federal government my entire adult life. Too many decision makers amongst the career bureaucrats are nothing more than incompetent boobs who have gotten to positions of power simply because it is nearly impossible to fire them.
We have already seen that private industry when given the proper incentives, can accomplish more with much less. After all, the team from
Scaled Composites built a ship and put into space for less than it would have cost NASA to conduct a study about it. I think it’s time we seriously considered putting people like them on point for awhile.
