A good night for space on BBC 4
A good night for space on BBC 4
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Simpo Two

Original Poster:

92,642 posts

294 months

Sunday 10th April 2011
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Sky at Night 700th edition with PM, Brians Cox and May (yes him), then the history of the Space Shuttle and now Titan.

This is what BBC2 used to be for!

bobthemonkey

4,204 posts

245 months

Sunday 10th April 2011
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The doco on Tsiolkovsky and Korolov was pretty good as well.

Eric Mc

125,601 posts

294 months

Sunday 10th April 2011
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No TV tonight. Definitely worth using the red button/iPlayer over the next few days.

Simpo Two

Original Poster:

92,642 posts

294 months

Monday 11th April 2011
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The thing that struck me about the Shuttle in conclusion was this - although it will be regarded as somewhat of a white elephant that explodes from time to time, BOTH the fatal accidents could have been avoided if NASA had been properly vigilant. Political pressure and the fear of failing in the public eye led to both failures becoming real instead of being fixed. Quite a parallel with the R-101 I thought.

I also thought that if all the effort and money that had been spent on the Shuttle had been spent on a manned mission to Mars, it would have been achieved long ago and probably more easily. As it is we can barely get into orbit now.

Eric Mc

125,601 posts

294 months

Monday 11th April 2011
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My feelings too. And the R101/Hydrogen Airship analogy is absolutely spot on - something I've felt for quite a while.

As I've said many times on PH, the Shuttle has done more to hinder space exploration than promote it.

Simpo Two

Original Poster:

92,642 posts

294 months

Monday 11th April 2011
quotequote all
But then it was always a compromise designed by Committee. And either of those alone is usually enough to wreck things. Amazing it worked at all really - in fact one reason cited when it was disbanded was that it was just too complicated.

Eric Mc

125,601 posts

294 months

Monday 11th April 2011
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And it wasn't the spacecraft originally specified by NASA either. Most of its problems stemmed from the extra requirements loaded onto it by the US Department of Defense.

Eric Mc

125,601 posts

294 months

Monday 11th April 2011
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Prgramme on Gagarin coming up at 11.00 am today on Radio 4.

blueedge

360 posts

226 months

Monday 11th April 2011
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There's a program on tonight at 1930 on BBC4 about Neil Armstrong.

"Being Neil Armstrong

Andrew Smith, author of Moondust, explores the life of the former astronaut, who has become increasingly reclusive during the four decades since he became the first man to set foot on the moon. He travels across America to meet Armstrong's ex-colleagues and friends, who offer an insight into the reluctant hero's behaviour."

Eric Mc

125,601 posts

294 months

Tuesday 12th April 2011
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Not a bad programme (shown originally in 2009) although Armstrong himself is not "increasingly reclusive" at all.

Simpo Two

Original Poster:

92,642 posts

294 months

Tuesday 12th April 2011
quotequote all
Or you can have a trip on the Shuttle for free and if you make it back in one piece they pay YOU $20 million nuts