Producing and selling the latter means: planting a seed, watering it, tending it, harvesting the fruits when ripe, transporting the harvest to market, setting a price, and...Ka-CHING!
Modern rockets, however, are fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen cryogenic propellants, which are hard to spell, much less produce on one's lonesome.
–The materials used in the construction of rockets and the processes undertaken to make its parts ensure that such things can only be produced by an immense organization.
–The larger the endeavor*, the more organizations are needed to complete it. In the case of the Space Shuttle Program, that meant the additional construction of (4) Mate-Demate Devices:
These cranes were designed by one organization and built by another, at a cost of $1.7 million each. The cranes could hoist the shuttles, as shown in the video, onto (2) specially designed Boeing airplanes–Shuttle Carrier Aircrafts (SCAs)–which were also designed by one org. & built by another. The hangar built by another org. to service the shuttle/s cost $3.7 million bones**. The shuttle was thus towed (by another org.) from factory to Air Force Base in CA, then flown by SCA to Florida,
with stoppages to refuel–as its payload caused less-than-optimal mileage. These are merely several examples of many such organizations involved, including all those that worked to make the ISIS ( 😃) space station a reality.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention that an SCA also lugged a shuttle all the way to Europe–for a promotional tour. After stops to refuel in Canada, Iceland, etc etc., of course. West Germany was of course not neglected on this tour, as it offered an opportunity to rub our technological prowess in the face of the Soviet enemies just over the border in East Germany.
–Institutions created to produce such "monuments" are organized in a hierarchical pyramid. Each level has their own concerns, but higher-ups have other priorities than those below them, which means: when someone at the top (named Linda Ham) gets the message from something called a "Debris Assessment Team" that the Columbia has been damaged on takeoff, this person, concerned about costly delays to the upcoming mission, can dismiss the problem because it did not come "through official channels."
–The damage that caused the Columbia disaster was not a one-off: of 79 missions with available imagery, debris (insulating foam) was created on 65. This includes the launch immediately following the Columbia disaster, which produced 16 individual instances of dislodged foam. Apparently we had learned nothing.
Since the management philosophy of the Space Shuttle program was success-oriented, priorities centered around deadlines, speed, good PR, shortcuts, great launch images (see above), etc etc; certainly not on altruistic, beneficial goals and obviously not on the health and welfare of anyone, least of all the astronauts.
–Like the pyramids of old, vast resources must be expended in such endeavors. In 2010, the cost of one space shuttle flight was $409 million dollars. Support of the infrastructure, education, the care of the sick and elderly, the support of the family, the control and punishment of rogue corps., etc etc etc, are neglected.
–In the case of rockets, launches scorch the Earth the same way that volcanoes, with their exhaust pointed upwards, damage the sky. Flight, incidentally, allows our spaceships to also affect the atmosphere, as has been shown in studies.
A pyramid, an institution, a corporation, a hierarchy, a prison, an armed force, a government, like blind and deaf volcanoes, exists only for itself; they are beholden to none and nothing. Worse, the pursuit of their alien priorities ends in widespread poverty, drained or destroyed resources, a less-than-optimal present and a bleaker outlook on the future. Which should make us all wonder why we never fail to support such things.
To the victors go the spoils
This bodes ill for those of us living on, like, Planet Earth, with bills and taxes to pay, with people to have relationships with, with love to spread, and, sometimes, with needs and desires for help. We end up under the exhaust of these glorious adventurers' ships.
So it has been since before western civilization was founded, and so it will continue to be, until we finally summon the strength to say NO!
Remember, a monarchy is also such a top-down institution, and it was a monarchy that sent Columbus, for whom the spaceship above–the first one built for the program, in fact–was named***. Ask any of the estimated 65 million dead Native Americans killed by disease or war after Columbus' maiden voyage how that endeavor worked out.
*–The Endeavour (sp.) was the 5th & final shuttle built by the program and cost $196 billion.
Challenger explosion was also warned of in advance. The infamous “O Rings” were tested multiple times and there was always damage to them in a takeoff scenario. Damage was worse the lower the temperature at takeoff.
An engineer wrote a memo pointing this out, and noting that the next planned launch would be at the lowest temperature ever attempted.
The memo concludes with the engineer stating that there is a serious risk of an explosion on takeoff that would destroy the shuttle, kill the crew, and blow up the launch pad.
3 for 3 on that call.
My high school science teacher was one of the 50 state finalists in the contest to pick a civilian to go up on that flight. He lost out in the final cut.
He said he got over that disappointment rather quickly….
Thanks for this informative comment and your support. All things, all disasters, are known beforehand. There is too much at stake for those in power to leave anything to chance. Hence, if disaster, destruction and death, rain down on you and yours tomorrow–it was allowed to. This is the nature of Power, capital ‘P’.
Challenger explosion was also warned of in advance. The infamous “O Rings” were tested multiple times and there was always damage to them in a takeoff scenario. Damage was worse the lower the temperature at takeoff.
An engineer wrote a memo pointing this out, and noting that the next planned launch would be at the lowest temperature ever attempted.
The memo concludes with the engineer stating that there is a serious risk of an explosion on takeoff that would destroy the shuttle, kill the crew, and blow up the launch pad.
3 for 3 on that call.
My high school science teacher was one of the 50 state finalists in the contest to pick a civilian to go up on that flight. He lost out in the final cut.
He said he got over that disappointment rather quickly….
Thanks for this informative comment and your support. All things, all disasters, are known beforehand. There is too much at stake for those in power to leave anything to chance. Hence, if disaster, destruction and death, rain down on you and yours tomorrow–it was allowed to. This is the nature of Power, capital ‘P’.