Just how tenuous is our toehold in space?

[Griff]

Cuban missile crisis just one of at least 4 other crises

By Mark McDonald

Knight Ridder Newspapers



MOSCOW - The Cuban missile crisis erupted in October 1962 when it was discovered that the Soviet Union had installed nuclear warheads on the island and targeted them at the United States. After a tense, 13-day standoff, the Soviets blinked and withdrew the missiles.
"We literally looked down the gun barrel into nuclear war," former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said in the documentary film, "The Fog of War."


"In the end, we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war."


The missile crisis is merely the best known of the close calls with nuclear war. There have been at least four others.

I suppose one strike against private launches is that the public agencies may just blow us all to hell when they detect a launch. At least SDI is incapable of leaving the silo at this point so they may not slaughter all the private space flights.