Dopo la conferenza stampa dei Senatori USA a margine dell’approvazione del " NASA Authorization Bill 2010" il portavoce ufficiale del DIRECT TEAM , Ross Tierney, con un post sul forum di NSF, ha annunciato che il team si può ritenere soddisfatto sul futuro del volo spaziale (USA) umano e della scelta di cominciare subito lo sviluppo di un HLV (sidemount o in-line che sia, ma comunque Shuttle-Derived) e che quindi ritengono per ora concluso il loro lavoro.
Dopo 4 e più anni passati a promuovere la loro idea di continuare ad utilizzare l’hardware, le strutture, la workforce ed il know-how derivante dal programma Shuttle, con 4 lunghissimi thread (di oltre 200 pagine ciascuno) sul sopracitato forum, riconoscono di essere arrivati alla fine della loro avventura che, negli anni, ha raccolto critiche positive e negative dai forumisti di tutto il mondo.
Ecco il post:
"[i]Wow, this has been one heckuva ride over the last 4+ years!
I’m delighted to hear the news today and I think I speak for the entire DIRECT Team when I say that we are very happy to see the Congress Authorize this today.
Our team looks forward to seeing Barbara Mikulski and Richard Shelby lead the Appropriations side of this next and we are convinced they will follow the exact same footsteps of this Authorizations bill.
Our job here is essentially done at this point. We always said that we would run this ball until the time was right to hand it off completely to NASA to run to the touchline. I think we have probably reached that point today and we collectively wish NASA all the very best in seeing this goal reached. NASA will have our full support.
Assuming things go forward as they seem to be going, the DIRECT Team intends to quietly bow-out now. For a while, we will still keep an eye on things to make sure this doesn’t somehow get de-railed, but Congress ultimately controls the money, so what they say, is all that actually gets funding – so this is pretty solid.
I would like to say a very big thank-you to everyone involved in DIRECT, from engineers to writers, from managers to artists, from leaders to dedicated fanboys – you know who you are, and you all understand exactly how historic an achievement we have together made happen here!
Well done to you all and I look forward to getting that chance to actually meet you all in person at the first launch!
In closing, I hope that DIRECT stands as a signal to everyone that YOU can make a difference if you simply choose to. The words of Margaret Mead were never so true as they are for this right now:
“Never doubt that a small dedicated
group of people can change the world;
indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
Ross. [/i]"
