Under Pressure, NASA Vows to Reveal U.S. Aviation Safety Problems

By Christine Simmons | November 2, 2007

  • November 2, 2007 at 10:07 am
    lastbat says:
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    It’s ridiculous that it took an act of Congress for NASA to do anything but shelve the study. I wonder who was putting pressure on Griffin for him to tell Congress his agency wasted $11M on a study that can’t be trusted – while other experts say the study is the best thing since bagged peanuts.

  • November 2, 2007 at 12:46 pm
    Willy says:
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    The most dangerous job in the world is NASA astronaut, so maybe NASA should do some research in the mirror. In fact, aside from dead astronauts, what has NASA ever produced of value to the nation? Oh yeah, Tang.

  • November 2, 2007 at 12:50 pm
    lastbat says:
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    And memory foam mattresses. I love memory foam.

  • November 2, 2007 at 12:52 pm
    and says:
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    Let’s not forget the technology in the computer you’re working, and many other useful things that have resulted from the research.

    All I’m saying is that for all the unconstitutional things the Federal Government engages in, if we are going to rip on something, I think NASA is at the bottom of the list. There are far worse things.

    If the AP wants the study so badly, why don’t they do it themselves.

  • November 2, 2007 at 1:02 am
    Willy says:
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    I have a memory foam mattress and Ilove it, but it was invented in Sweden, not by NASA.

    And computers have been around since WWII. Among other things, they were used, believe it or not, with the .50’s on B29’s for remote targeting. NASA buys things, they don’t invent things. If I’m wrong, please inform my ignorance.

  • November 2, 2007 at 1:07 am
    AZAZ says:
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    Try things you use every day….

    From an article that is just the tip of the iceberg:

    http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/aug/06/ben_bova_nasa_has_given_us_much_more_moon_rocks_an/

    The sensors and instrumentation that keep patients alive in hospital intensive care units came originally from technology developed to keep astronauts alive in their spacecraft. The lightweight, nonflammable materials that we use in windsurfing, skiing, firefighting and a thousand other ways came out of space technology.

    So did small, smart, rugged computers such as the laptop that I’m using to write this column.

    The main reason that we seldom think of NASA’s contribution to these items of everyday use is that they’re not stamped “Brought to you by space technology.” We see our tax dollars go into NASA by the billions. We don’t see the trillions of dollars pumped into the American economy by space technology because those products — and the jobs that they produce — exist in the civilian sector.

  • November 2, 2007 at 1:45 am
    Gill Fin says:
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    Its about the fact that every part of our American infrastructure, an infrastructure that our parents and grandparents could have been proud of, an infrastructure that was once the envy of the planet, has been ignored by so many for so long that it is crumbling. Meanwhile, the tax dollars that should have been used for all our benefit on infrastructure, has been used for social engineering programs like welfare, socialized medicine, subsidized housing and Katrina bailouts. Our roads and bridges are at the end of their useful lives. Engineers knew when they built them when they would fail and need to be replaced. Feel good politicians cared more about courting special interest votes than fulfilling their elected duty.

  • November 2, 2007 at 2:07 am
    Mike says:
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    Nope, NASA didnt develope any of those things. They are done by other companies contracted by NASA.

  • November 2, 2007 at 2:12 am
    Willy says:
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    Would none of these things have been invented or produced w/o NASA? There are plenty of innovations that have nothing to do with NASA. And the things that you mention are not particular to space travel. E.g., computer miniaturization was ongoing prior to NASA’s existence, as was experientation with remote patient monitoring devices.

    What are the benefits of the space station? Remember “Sky Lab”? The $40 milllion “space module”? Oh yeah, going to the moon cured cancer and world hunger. Now they want to goto Mars. Big whoop.

    It’s welfare for physicists, is all. NASA does nothing that private industry and the Air Force couldn’t accomplish if and when there is a need and/or profit.



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