[LINK] "Rocket envy"
Apr. 26th, 2011 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI'm indebted to Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait for letting me know that both China and the United States have plans to build heavy-left rockets capable of boosting up to 130 tons into Earth orbit. This compares well to the Saturn V moon rockets' abilities, incidentally.
Plait goes on to argue that China is quite capable of doing this--it has the money, it has the technology--that people who argue Obama is neglecting manned space travel are dead wrong, and that the cuts to NASA's budget aren't so severe. The comments are informative.
On March 3rd, a Chinese news agency reported that China plans on building the world’s most powerful rocket, capable of launching a staggering 130 tons to orbit.
A few weeks ago, NASA announced the White House NASA budget request for FY 2012, stating that $1.8 billion dollars be spent on designing a new rocket system to replace the Shuttle (and the canceled Constellation program). The lift capability specifically mentioned in that budget outline? "100 – 130 tons". This is in line with the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which called for a 130 ton payload rocket. That Act was signed into law by President Obama in October 2010.
Plait goes on to argue that China is quite capable of doing this--it has the money, it has the technology--that people who argue Obama is neglecting manned space travel are dead wrong, and that the cuts to NASA's budget aren't so severe. The comments are informative.
