There we go.

Yeah I'm satisfied and agree with the you idea of keeping it whilst developing a new design.

Sorry chaps. I was never convinced of the value of manned space exploration. The current problems with the Shuttle show just how primitive & dangerous it still is. To a casual observer like me, NASA seems to be run by a bunch of enthusiastic & highly talented amateur boffins* trying to justify their existence. I'm still inclined to be as sceptical as Fozzer.

* bof·fin also Bof·fin    )
n. Chiefly British Slang
A scientist, especially one engaged in research.

I think you hit the nail on the head Richie. The Sixties was a very exciting time & all sorts of new things were happening, not only in space. Technology was advancing more rapidly than at any time before or since. I can remember when Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was successfully launched (in 1957 when I was 14 years old) & listening to the beeps on the radio as it passed within range. Top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1962 was an instrumental named Telstar, by British group the Tornados, released soon after the first-ever live transatlantic TV transmission via satellite. It would have been difficult for any young person brought up on the exploits of Flash Gordon & Dan Dare not to be caught up in all this. It was like science fiction coming true & something I'd never dreamed of seeing in my lifetime. However, the military implications were obvious to anyone with the slightest imagination. If the USSR could put a man into orbit what else might they be capable of?

When the Space Race was in full flow circumstances were very different to what they are now. It was vitally important to the Western world's very survival that we (mainly represented by the US) kept abreast, if not ahead, of the USSR in military technology. That included ballistic missiles & space itself. At least, that's what we were were told & we believed it. Peace negotiations had broken down again & the Berlin Wall was built in August 1961. A physical symbol of the Cold War & how bad East/West relations had become. Intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads were permanently aimed at strategic locations all over the world, some obviously being aimed at London - not far from where I'm sitting now. (It's quite possible that some still are.) We were told we would get a maximum 4 minutes warning of a nuclear attack for whatever use that might be. Not only did nuclear war appear to be a very real possibility but the USSR seemed to have the advantage.

After narrowly winning the 1960 Presidential election JFK had (somewhat rashly I thought) publicly promised the American people that they could & would put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The 'New Frontier' as he put it, was like something straight out of Star Trek although the first episodes of that series would not appear until 1966. Quote:

The man was so charming & charismatic that people wanted to believe him. I admired him myself & thought he must have been pretty certain of his facts, although I'm not so convinced of that now. It was more than likely a huge gamble but I was never under any doubt that this was a military project & it was natural that the pioneer astronauts would be military test pilots. It was also generally accepted that this was likely to be highly dangerous & some of those astronauts would quite possibly lose their lives in the attempt.

I recently discovered that the JFK Library released a tape recording of a White House meeting in 1962 in which the space programme was discussed. This extract seems to confirm what I have always thought. That, however it might have been presented to the public, this was politically motivated right from the beginning with mainly military objectives. I'm cynical enough to believe that this is still the case & that no government in the world would be prepared to spend that amount of effort & resources on purely scientific research.
Quote:

PS. http://www.space.com/news/kennedy_tapes_010822.html