Originally Posted by Space Monkey

There's a lot of people who have been saying that for a lot of years.... Although I think NASA did a good job of getting us into space in the 50's and too the moon in the 60's.... Not too many great things have happened since. The space shuttle while the "latest and greatest" in the 80's is now a jurrasic hunk of crap and while newer spacecraft concepts (x-33 and X-34) have come along NASA has canned them. Which is a shame since there was an X-34 that was only weeks from flying when the program got dropped.... and now what is NASA spending money on the CEV (a modernized step back to Apollo) that's brilliant. The real shame with some of the space technology that we have not progressed on is that some of it was envisioned and studied by the Nazi's back in the 40's. Such as Dr. Sangers Silver Eagle.... http://www.luft46.com/misc/sanger.html bottom line the idea of hypersonic aerospace planes is an old one where no progress has been made... (almost of 70 years of no progress to be exact) and sadly has these ideas gone through when they were though up who knows how much farther along we would be by now.... Personally I think NASA has seen its day and now that day has long since passed. Bottom line I hope companies like Scaled Composites go in develope more and better ships and eat their lunch....