Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] FWD: CNN Breaking News

["Peter Madsen" <apg@mail.tdcadsl.dk>]

Mike wrote:


> "The truth is that we've lost in flight only the two shuttle crews since
> flights started in 1961.    That makes it very, very safe indeed.   Only
> personal submarines can match that record.

I dont quite get that...to me it looks like you have something in the order
of 1:50 chance for paying with your life by entering space by shuttle. I
would still go, if i got at ticket ofcause,
but i would feal a lot more safe in a Mercury capsule or a well tryed Atlas
booster, than in the Shutte. My point here related to the topic, is to keep
things simple, because high tech solutions is not always safer than
low-tech.

Staying far off subs...the Mercury and Apollo command module, and all the
russian designed capsules all have an escape rockets, that makes it posible
to abort the mission during the burn of the booster, somthing imposibble on
the shuttles. Also, the shuttles re-entry is a very complex matter, because
it has to be so gentle ( shutte g-loads in in the 0-3 g range compared to
the up to 12 smashing g's that apollo astronauts had to live with )

Think simple, and live longer...

Peter Madsen