Contributed by: filbert Thursday, August 04 2005 @ 07:30 AM CST
NASA finally acting like the Shuttle is an experimental spacecraft[*1] .
Indeed, the spacewalk suggests that NASA has fundamentally changed the way it looks at the shuttle, seeing it as a truly experimental vehicle.
For years, NASA managers were loath to make this concession. It amounted to an admission of defeat. The shuttle was intended to be an operational vehicle – something that made going into space almost routine.
Twenty-five years and 14 dead astronauts later, NASA finally figures out that the Shuttle is an experimental vehicle. Progress of a sort, I guess.