Germany Ahead of US in Next-Generation Space Vehicles

There's a lot of excitement this week around Cape Kennedy about how NASA is losing it's next great race. While still performing ground tests of it's future vehicle's engines, NASA can't figure out how Germany has gone from the drawing board to unmanned test flights in so little time.

When asked to what he attributes their feat, Dr. Erwin Strauss, head scientist, replied, "We've identified NASA's biggest engineering roadblock and remedied a solution."

Dr. Strauss refers to an issue most clearly demonstrated by the 1999 Martian debacle of an American probe, caused due to a mix-up of the US and metric systems. "We use just the metric system," he snorted proudly.

"That is an American design from the 1970's," said a senior NASA engineer, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Leave it to the Germans to take an American design and make it work."

Stay posted as the race for space continues.