Rhetorical Cliche

Okay, so, the shuttle landed safely this morning. That’s a good thing. But my goodness, I’ve never heard (or read) such cliche and rhetoric in my life!

NASA officials and politicians spoke of things like “passing the torch” and a “broken safety culture,” as well as “the start of a new era” and a “proud day for America.” Please, folks. This is science and technology. Let’s leave the marketing bull-speak out of it. Tell us what worked, what didn’t work, and what’s to be done to further improve for the next time (Atlantis is slated for lift-off as soon as late September).

We, the Amerian people, are paying for NASA to play with their “experimental space vehicle.” We want some answers about how that money’s being spent, and what’s being done to get the most for our money. The damned things cost a fortune to build, fly (about $450 million per mission) and maintain. Two of them have blown up already, at a cost of roughly $1.7 Billion dollars each, not to mention the 14 human lives lost.

By the way, I feel that the space programs of the world are some of the best money we can spend, aside from environmental and educational funds, but I don’t have any desire to see billions and billions of dollars pissed away on junk and bull-speak.