🚀 go-pugleaf

soc1070@CRABAPPLE.SRV.CS.CMU.EDU (Tim Harincar) writes, re NASA profitability:
>I thought part of the initial selling point of the 
>shuttle was that NASA could recapture its investment through the "putting
>stuff in orbit" business.
>
>What about the big RCA logo on the Delta rockets (as seen in "the 
>Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space Technology")? I hope RCA had to pay
>for that.
>
>I am not trying to start an arguement or anything, it just seems that
>what you said seems to contridect some of the things I've seen from
>NASA. And the wonderful publications - I hope you make money on those,
>it would be stupid not to.

Isn't NASA a "not-for-profit" organization?  I can see them recouping (sp?) 
their costs, but not making a profit off of them.

And Dennis Newkirk <dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com> writes, re Soviet space 
disasters:

>Yes. This last one sounds like stories about the Soyuz 1 accident.
>There were rumors for years about someone listening to Komarov 
>as he decended to Earth and the parachutes failed (this part is true,
>he was the first spaceflight fatality). Its very  unlikely his wife
>would even have been in contact during his short and troubled mission.
>Also, for any manned spacecraft yet constructed I'm sure it would be 
>impossible to reach the Sun by a failed retro burn, there just isn't
>enough performance. It's probably impossible to even intentionally fly 
>to the Sun. 

Reading the discussions of this topic, especially the part about the 
cosmonaut's wife listening in as he goes crashing into the sun, reminds me of 
the David Bowie song, "Major Tom."  Any idea if the song was based on this 
story?