Ever since the beginning of time, man has raced to improve. From the invention of the wheel, to the invention of the carriage; from the invention of the car to the invention of the airplane. Mankind has tried to get faster and higher. And the expense has been a large wall between the accomplishments. The Space Program, has been the most present-day expense. And although some people think the Space Shuttle is a waste of money, the Space Shuttle is indeed worth it's cost by what Americans have gained such as improved telecommunications, geological studies, and an understanding of the Universe. After all, telecommunications, governmental satellites, and space research satellites have helped made our planet, and our country, more safe and advanced.
A lot of time and expense was put into designing the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle was designed to be an inexpensive way to recover, repair, and deploy satellites, compared to normal unmanned space craft. The favored design originally was much like today's Space Shuttle, but consisted of two-winged, reusable rockets. But after countless redesigns, they came up with the design of today's Space Shuttle that helped reduce production costs. It was once that President Richard Nixon said, " All these possibilities, and countless others with direct and dramatic bearing on human betterment, can never be more than fractionally realized so long as every single trip from earth to orbit remains a matter of special effort and staggering expense. This is why commitment to the space program is the right next step for America to take, in moving out from our present beachhead in the sky to achieve a real working presence in space - because the Space Shuttle will give us routine access to space by sharply reducing costs in dollars and preparation time."" But the mind focus on reducing expense, resulted in carelessness. For when on January 28th, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after take-off because of a frozen O-ring seal on the booster rocket.
