In article . com, "Edward Green" writes:
wrote:

If you read about the early days of Edwards Air Base (or Muroc, as it
was called originally) you'll find that they had they share of
mishaps. And, that they could've never made the amazing progress they
did, going all the way from the x-1 to x-15, from barely breaking the
sound barier to going past Mach 6 and straight out of the atmosphere,
would they have been stopping all progress for few years each time a
mishap happened (as NASA does). Fortunately, PR was low on the list
of their priorities.

Since you're knowledgeable about this, and were recently discussing it,
I wonder if you could comment on a plausible bit of tale-telling I
heard once:

To wit -- that the x-plane program, since, as you say, it had already
left the atmosphere, would have naturally resulted in a progression of
aerospace craft which smoothly transitioned to orbit, and were
resusable (like the shuttle); but that progress was stopped by the
Russians putting the first man in orbit, so that we had to go the
fastest possible route to putting "spam in a can", for, as you say,
basically public relations -- at least as far as manned-space flight
was concerned.

Well, yes, I did encounter this story, more than once, and it is, at
the very least, quite plausible. There is no doubt that the program,
before the Russians launched the Sputnik, was purely technology
oriented, not PR. To extent to which PR was low on the list of
priorities is illustrated by the fact that, when Yeager broke the
sound barrier, this event was not only not trumpeted but, in fact,
classified, and it remained so for nearly eight months.

The X program was purely technology oriented, to be specific, military
aviation technology development. It was about "pushing the envelope".
So, yes, it is possible that left to proceed as it was it would result
in a more rational development of manned space flight. Mind you,
though, that there was another possible, outcome, just as likely.
"Pushing the envelope" doesn't mean that you push equally in all
possible directions, you expend most effort on the directions which
appear most promising (with "promising" being defined by the goals of
the program, i.e. military aviation). So, it is just as plausible
(IMO) that the decision of the people guiding the program, following
the x-15 or perhaps one more plane along these lines, would have been
"There ain't much in this direction for military aviation, we'll
better expend our efforts elsewhere".

PR is a double edged sword. Sometimes, it may screw up the efforts to
make something happen. At other times, it may cause something to
happen which wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Mati Meron | "When you argue with a fool,
| chances are he is doing just the same"