"Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj" wrote:

:Fred J. McCall wrote:
: "Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj" wrote:
:
: :Fred J. McCall wrote:
: :
: : (D.K.) wrote:
: :
: : :P.S. First American woman in space was what - 20 years after
: : :Tereshkova?
: :
: : Yes, the difference being that we didn't send one until she had an
: : actual purpose in being there. 'Parachute packer in a can' as a
: : 'first' is hardly something to be beating your chest about.
: :
: :Sour grapes?
:
: Not hardly.
:
: :I believe that in addition to the obvioous political political
: urpose, they even manufactured a set of 'opportunity knocks'
: :scientific, medical, purposes for launching her.
:
: As I understood it, she was sealed in with instructions not to touch
: anything.
:
:So how does that contradict, or affect the validity of anything
:which I said, even in the scientific field? After all did orbiting
:Laika by the russians, or the monkeys and apes by the USA not provide
:valuable biometric data?

Not especially, no, as I understand it. We sent up monkeys first
because we were afraid something would go wrong with the vehicle and
kill the occupant, and monkeys are generally more expendable than
fighter pilots.

I suspect the Soviet reason for sending a dog was similar.

: :As a slight parallel, What was the purpose of Senator John
: :Glenns' 1998, STS-95 return trip into space?
:
: Funding. He's a Senator and can help get it raised.
:
: [And no, we shouldn't have sent him, either. But you don't see us
: touting it as a great 'victory'.
:
:I think that AARP is

Perhaps. No doubt they're enamoured of "Pukin' Jake" Garn, too. Both
of those flights, however, were pure fund raisers and should never
have happened.

[Jake Garn *was* a study subject, by the way. They were studying
space sickness. He was a 'good' subject.]

: However, in your case, I suppose you have to grab what little glory
: you can find wherever you can find it.]
:
:Indeed! I will revel and bask in any glory that I can garner
:And I won't in any small and mean spirited way deny the fame, glory
:and credit due to the space pioneers of any beings in this universe.

There are heros and then there are heros. It's not particularly
heroic if you don't understand what's going on when it happens to you.

When you ask most 'heros' about what they did, the usual answer is
roughly, "**** happened and I did what I had to do. Heroic? I almost
fainted when it was all over!"


--
"This is a war of the unknown warriors; but let all strive
without failing in faith or in duty...."

-- Winston Churchill