Giving credit where its due.
Nick, perhaps all this tongue-wagging has to do with the US never giving the Europeans credit when credit was due. After all, Igor was allowed to come over and show us how it is done. Perhaps this short story will help smooth some feathers;
While sitting at a Heathrow pub waiting for a Pan Am flight (2?) home and watching (on the telly) the lift-off of one of the space shuttle’s first launches, two Brits sitting along side me remarked that if it hadn’t been for England’s special grass blend that allowed very little sand and wind erosion near the ocean, Cape Canaveral wouldn’t even exist today to launch those shuttles.
Let me be the first to offer a rather belated “Thank You” to the Brits for their contribution to our space program.