Reader adds $.02 to Space Shuttle debate

I've caught a little hell lately for criticizing the Space Shuttle program. One note in particular merits a complete dismantling:

Nice “death trap” caption. You are the type of guy who goes to Astroworld, and tells your friends that you do not want to ride the Texas Cyclone because “One time some guy somewhere lost an arm on one of those things”, and then goes to watch the fireworks display.

Actually, the Texas Cyclone is my favorite AstroWorld ride. Sit in the last car; it has a tendency to jump the track a little. Good times. And what do you have against fireworks? They're rockets too, you know.

Invertebrates such as yourself are the reason why children can no longer play dodge ball in school; it is too big of a danger and unfairness issue

I have no problem with dodgeball. It's fun, and I was pretty good at it. Then again, dodgeball doesn't cost $16 billion a year, and a dodgeball never burned up during re-entry, incinerating seven dodgeball players and littering a 200-mile playground with explosive and radioactive debris.

if I could make a suggestion, grow a spine.

Speak for yourself, Mr. Tough Guy. You see, I have to call you Mr. Tough Guy because you didn't have the "spine" to sign your name.

Get out once in a while and you may understand that the space industry in one way or another responsible for just about every new worthwhile invention that you use daily, but no, you would forsake it all if there were ANY risk!

Okay, I've gone over this time and time again. But I'll do it once more for those in the back. I am not demanding zero risk from NASA. What I would like is a little honesty from the space program. Accepting safety standards, and then fudging tests to avoid meeting those standards is dishonest. Space travel is dangerous enough when it's done right. Why should we allow unelected bureaucrats to make it even more dangerous by rigging safety numbers?

Listen Einstein, its space flight, there are risks period, and the most important people who need to know that are the seven people who are in that rocket and I am sure they are made aware of it at least of it a least once.

I seriously doubt the astronauts knew about NASA's cheating on safety tests.

You should try to be a little less hypocritical and maybe not criticize the program that enabled you to use the key board with which you use to type.

Actually, the QWERTY keyboard was invented in 1872. The first keyboard on a computer was used in 1948, a full decade before the inception of NASA.