🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <72827@cup.portal.com> BrianT@cup.portal.com (Brian Stuart Thorn) writes:
>>NASA is chartered as a research organization, not an operational agency.
>>Shuttle is operations, not research.
>
>    Shuttle is the only manned system we have, so it is in large part
>    still a research article. I agree, however, that operations is
>    the major part of the Shuttle system.

I guess I disagree with both of these views.  If I build a custom laser
in my lab, and then operate it purely as a tool to support my research
program, I think I am still doing research.  Likewise, when NASA is
using the shuttle to fly Spacelab, TSS, Hubble, etc, it's doing
research.  Even a TDRS launch is part of the research effort, since the
constellation is used to support various birds doing research
missions.  The Intelsat rescue was a pretty different story, but even
there, they had a defendable position.

The shuttle system itself may not be considered R&D anymore, but it's
the manifest that tells you whether it's doing research  or mere
"operations."

-- 
Francois Yergeau (yergeau@phy.ulaval.ca) |  De gustibus et coloribus
Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser    |  non disputandum
Departement de Physique                  |          -proverbe scolastique
Universite Laval, Ste-Foy, QC, Canada    |