Against All Odds: NASA'a New Policy

Also, two years after the Columbia broke apart, NASA is completing preparations for a new shuttle mission. While I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid too, I have no idea what we are actually trying to accomplish in space, and I don't think NASA does either. As to the purpose of this mission, some supplies will be delivered to the International Space Station, but "the major focus of their mission will be testing and evaluating new Space Shuttle flight safety, which includes new inspection and repair techniques." Correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently we are spending somewhere around $500 million dollars to fly into space just to make sure we still can. While that seems pointless enough to me, NASA appears to be ignoring a critical new report "conclud[ing] that the space agency still does not fully comply with three of the toughest recommendations that accident investigators made in 2003." So in short, NASA is going into space without changing the things that may have led to the accident in 2003. Perhaps a better idea may be to buy a car, put the astronauts in it, blow it up, and save the $499,980,000. Although we wouldn't learn anything about zero-gravity's effects on osteoporosis.