Why NASA is like British Rail Well more precisely, the structural changes that the American space program is undergoing are akin to those that the British rail industry under went during the 1980s. The past of space transportation in the US is fundamentally defined by NASA, a large, government owned, monolithic, monopolistic, vertically integrated organisation. [...]
Archive for the ‘Space exploration safety’ Category
Soviet Buran Shuttle was Safer than American Shuttle
Posted in Complexity, Simplicity, Space exploration safety, System architecting, tagged architectural safety, Buran Shuttle, New Scientist, Oleg Kotov, Shuttle safety on 09/07/2011 | Leave a Comment »
Soviet Shuttle was safer by design According to veteran russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, quoted in a New Scientist article the soviet Buran shuttle (1) was much safer than the American shuttle due to fundamental design decisions. Kotov’s comments once again underline the importance to safety of architectural decisions in the early phases of a design.