[FPSPACE] Iranian sounding rocket as PR

[Keith Gottschalk]

>This "space launch" was a PR stunt for the easily misled

  Of course - it's the only symbolism they can do every time the USG
sends another aircraft carrier into the Gulf, or similar military
pressure. We should expect a few more such launches each time another
big US military show of force happens.

> Does the emperor lack raiment? Robert G Kennedy III, PE

   Of course. Even if you sell oil, building a space launcher is
horrendously expensive. And if you are a 3rd world country, even your
oil revenue cannot avoid the need to find very scarce skills, & keep
thousands of rare engineers, technicians, mechanics, software
developers, and electricians, busy for seven to ten years. When the old
apartheid South Africa tried local manufacture of Israeli Jericho 2 as a
space launcher first stage, our inflation junped up to 16%, surprise,
surprise.

   And no skipping essentials. Even the vaster resources of the USSR
couldn't afford a static test stand to iron out vibration resonance
catastrophes on the N1. Even the short cut of clustering low-performance
heritage missiles to make a space launcher 1st stage still requires all
the care of organizing 20 model T Fords into a team to pull a modern
truck trailer....

Keith
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