Spaceward ho!

I don't get it. They named the first shuttle to have ever lifted off the ground as Enterprise. Why can't they now build something that looks more like a ship? They can stick with the current capsule like design if they want. Just duct tape to it a couple of warp drives or something.

The first shuttle was Enterprise. It was never meant to go into space. All it was good for was for a few test flights. The first shuttle that went into space was Columbia.

In episode "Skin of Evil", the episode where Tasha died (damn the script writers), they used a shuttle to go down to the alien planet to investigate an unknown energy reading. On their way down, we had a view of them inside the shuttle, which shows that they were all wearing seatbelts. This was the first episode ever in star trek history where seat belts were shown to be used by star trekers.Suprisingly, the next time seat belts were seen to be used was in Star Trek Voyager. Can't remember the episode name off the top of my head. Mr. Paris rides the delta flyer to try to reach warp 10 where theoretically the delta flyer would enter "hyperspace" and could travel anywhere in space-time. While flying, Paris is seen for a brief moment with seat belts.I guess they finally caught on and officially gave Picard seat belts on his big chair in the bridge of the battle scarred Enterprise at the end of Star Trek Nemesis.Yes, I hate myself for knowing these things.

I don't think the US gov is getting that much interested in space programs. Look at the scheduling and the designs. The new pod obviously can't do much beside going directly to where it is going. It can't carry that much load. But the main thing is the plan is projecting a whole 20 years into the future. Between now and then, anything could happen. Heck, I'll be an old man by the time I get to see a man on mars some 50 years from now.Like I said before, I'm afraid this might be another political stunt by the Bush administration (or the republicans).

Not just Bush Sr. Just about every president since Kenedy made a promise of some kind about the space program but never went through with it. Hell, the original goal, if anyone here remember at all, was that we were suppose to have a man on mars by the end of the 20th century. And yet for 30 years our space program went from being in orbit around Earth to, well, being in orbit around Earth. Look at it this way, there is no doubt that Social Security is facing some serious danger in the near future. And eventually somebody will have to do some cutbacks to fill in the holes. Actually, the holes are already there. If anything, someone on top has already thought this through and made the decision to go ahead with the new space program knowing it ain't going to go anywhere due to budget deficits. In other words, there ain't no milk to milk in the first place.