How Do You Spell That?

Now it's time for me to rant. Excuse the mess.

For the last twenty years of my life, I've been watching the white albatross (a.k.a. the Space Shuttle) shoot off every four to five months to ferry up pieces and parts of a Space Station that really no one wants to go to, and frankly, won't accomplish much with what we have planned for it.

It's not going to be the wonderful orbiting laboratory in the sky/hyper-advanced micro graivty lab. No, it has now 100% developed into a high-maintenance condo for the astronauts who kiss ass the best (which was 100% true when George Abbey was in charge, I really don't know about now).

I was watching 16 Days: The Final Columbia Mission when I was truly amazed at the science that could be completed by seven people stuck in space at the same time. There were tons of experiments which showed that the way things work in space is nowhere near what it's like on Earth.

I guess we're at a point where we need to do one of two things.

One, privatize the entire manned space program. Give Boeing, Lockmart, Whoever a challenge like the DOD. Build a cheap rocket to get into space and to bring enough cargo to do something. Expendable/Reuseable doesn't matter. Plan on 15 flights a year. Yearly budget, $3 billion. $2 billion startup.

Two. Build this.

I'd prefer option two, but I don't think my grandkids will be around to see something like it which makes 100% sense.

Update:
SpaceDaily has a good wrapup on this issue.