Perhaps to obtain new technology 
I am betting on private sector and American ingenuity. There is fifty years' worth of data out there to be utilized.
Posted on 07/20/2011 5:38:03 AM PDT by IbJensen
America belongs in space. After Space Shuttle Atlantis lands this week, the American space program is where it was fifty years ago: lacking a proven capability to put astronauts into low earth orbit. Most Americans cannot remember a time when the United States wasn’t the world leader in space exploration.
Make no mistake, this is President Obama’s space legacy. NASA’s budget is being refocused on global warming and other politically charged projects instead of manned space flight. No word on whether “outreach to Muslim nations” remains a NASA priority.
After the launch of Atlantis on July 8, sympathetic media outlets like CNN were trumpeting NASA’s new “focus on deep space exploration.” This administration spin doesn’t match reality. NASA doesn’t even have the heavy lift capability necessary for the deep space project.
Obama’s termination of NASA’s manned space capabilities may carry political consequences. In 2012, thousands of unemployed aerospace workers along Florida’s Space Coast and I-4 corridor are unlikely to forget who aborted the program. There are also military consequences to the Obama policy. Allowing so much unemployed aerospace engineering talent to scatter to the wind affects America’s military capabilities. Relying on Russia to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station is only the most visible example of other countries surpassing America in space.
I attended the final launch of the Space Shuttle with my daughter. A year earlier, I saw her eyes wide with amazement when she met John Blaha, a veteran of six Shuttle missions. Hers will be the first generation since the 1950s where the dreams of space are merely part of America’s history, as compared with her certain future.
Space dominance was America’s atom bomb 2.0. After American atomic dominance was matched, first by the Soviets, then others, world leadership in space exploration provided Americans with evidence that there is something great about this nation. Some might tut-tut the worth of such intangibles, but to the vast majority of Americans who support the Space Shuttle program (2 to 1), it is real.
Vocal opponents of NASA’s manned space program crow about the benefits of privatized spaceflight. Of all the other federal functions ripe for privatization — the dinosaur postal service for example — Obama targets the one function that provides both national security benefits and requires massive accumulation of capital to conduct. Too bad Obama’s zeal to wipe out manned space flight through privatization doesn’t extend to other parts of the federal government.
True, NASA critics have plenty to gripe about. But what is undeniable is that the Space Shuttle is the most complex space vehicle built by man and made spaceflight relatively routine. It accomplished things the critics in the 1970s didn’t think were possible.
In addition to relying on the Russians, SpaceX and Orbital Science are two companies promoted by privatization disciples. In nearly every other endeavor, privatization works.
There’s only one problem with privatization with space flight — it isn’t working. Space X is where NASA was in 1960 with Project Mercury. Namely, the ability to put humans into orbit exists on paper, and nowhere else.
In December 2010, Space X finally accomplished what NASA did when Chubby Checker topped the charts with the Twist and the Cowboys were an expansion team — launch an unmanned capsule into space. Instead of humans or animals in the Space X Dragon capsule, it carried a wheel of Le Brouere cheese. The smarty-pants engineers at Space X thought it would be funny to shoot off a cheese wheel, recalling the famous Monty Python cheese sketch. Space X might be a half century behind NASA, but no one can deny their hipster wit.
Notwithstanding all the wonky support to rip manned space flight from NASA, there are some undeniable lessons from history. Firstly, nations at the vanguard of exploration determine the course of human history. The last great period of exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed mighty world powers arise because of that exploration.
Secondly, space has quantifiable rewards, particularly military benefits. America is a global military power in large part because America leads in space. America is the most comfortable operating in space because America has been the most committed to space for 50 years. China understands this. So the Chinese are keeping their foot on the accelerator, not backing off.
Space holds secrets to be discovered by the nation most committed to finding them. Whether unlimited helium-3 supplies on the moon or discoveries beyond our imagination, the countries most committed to space will reap the rewards. Given the tendencies of this president to resist policies or philosophies that enhance America’s greatness, don’t expect America’s reach to extend far beyond where Freedom 7 took Alan Shepard in 1961 for the foreseeable future.
Obama, being the stupid communist many of us know him to be, shares the common progressive hostility to actual science, as opposed to the politicized kind.would happen to their plans for an “energy limited” Utopia with solar power satellites pumping out a few terawatts of power each 24/7/365, as opposed to their preferred “appropriate technology” surface receptors, which have a couple of small problems- called “night” and “the atmosphere”.
To say nothing of the hell that would ensue if NASA should inadvertently discover a controllable fusion system architecture that actually worked. (But as long as the likes of James Hansen are in the center seat, Greenpeace and ELF can rest easy- to say nothing of Stevie Chu.)
Finally, and this is the one they would cut their own throats rather than admit, as long as there are no independent, self-sustaining human colonies off Earth, the elitists have a gun to humanity’s head. “We have all sorts of ways to kill you, from bioweapons to politically-created famines to nukes. Don’t give us any trouble, or else.” They prate of their “love” of humanity, but it’s all BS; all they care about is power, and having everyone else under their thumbs.
Too bad there can't be one last launch: send Obozo into outer space.........
Well...I recently read that India was putting a monkey in orbit.
Are you taking donations for that last part?
But it seems to me, NASA is the absolute end commentary on bull warming (it's bigger'n Gore, but bull nonetheless ..)
Decades of photo's and galactic knowledge.
NASA had to go.
Great. Now America must rely on Russia for all our space needs.
Most of the people that I know that care about the space program are independents. They mourn the loss of the space program, they rightfully blame Obama, but they will vote for Obama in 2012.
It’s absolutely amazing to me.
NASA may pull off that launch for nothing.
They’re not all shills for the central socialist government working frantically to prove gorebal warming, as some of them are quite patriotic. The truly traitorous NASA men ran for the Senate: both were lousy: Glenn and Nelson.
At the time we were in Houston there was a shuttle at the ISS, but the website was sparse on that little fact in favor of a big push on sports. And, it wasn't like the emphasis was on astronauts needing to be fit to work in space, or the discipline of sports helping to develop discipline in other areas of life, or any other space theme. It had NOTHING to do with space exploration or man's place there.
Sick. Obama's legacy indeed.
The left is wrong on virtually every issue, NASA being just one of them. Seriously. Take any situation, ask a leftist what they think, then do the opposite. That’s the best way to succeed in this life and the hereafter.
No word on whether “outreach to Muslim nations” remains a NASA priority.
///
true. but “Global Warming” under Hansen is.
despite their own measurements proving AGW and Greenhouse theory is false.
(NASA satellites show the complete absence of the necessary predicted atmospheric “hotspot”, and worse, show the earth has been COOLING since 2003, not getting warming.
in spite of “adjustments” always made to increase temps.)
Well, now that the exploration segment of the American space program is essentially a done deal, liberals can pick at NASA as the cash cow they’ve always thought it was. They can concentrate fully upon redirecting its charter to the role of self-esteem mentor for muslims, as envisioned by obama. How nice.
Much is said about America recapturing “greatness” as the leader in space exploration. Nations who elect marxist agitators to the highest office in the land are making the statement they don’t aspire to greatness.
We’ll see if there’s any flicker of desire in Americans’ hearts to recapture some of the old glory, come November 2012.
“Nations who elect marxist agitators to the highest office in the land are making the statement they don’t aspire to greatness.”
I’d bet that 1/2 of those that voted for Obama don’t understand that he’s a Marxist agitator. Thus, they’ll vote for him again.
The other 1/2... yep, there are that many communists in America now. Thanks to the American public schools.
The commies knew where to hit us.
Yeah, leave the space station to Ruskies and let them bring Katyushas and lasers on board, watch US, spy station unlimited.
“Please take us for ride”
What is left to screw Kenyan?
* NASA’s budget is being refocused on global warming *
In other words, NASA is now about Science Fiction instead of Science
*The left is wrong on virtually every issue, NASA being just one of them. Seriously. Take any situation, ask a leftist what they think, then do the opposite. That’s the best way to succeed in this life and the hereafter.*
True!
It’s like when George Costanza decided to do everything opposite of his instincts. Everything worked out well for him.
Just do the opposite of what a Leftist would do!
Perhaps to obtain new technology
I am betting on private sector and American ingenuity. There is fifty years' worth of data out there to be utilized.
You should not be. Have you ever heard of a true conservative becoming an "independent?"
Independents strike me as being libs that can only look out a window at the rest of the world instead of opening the door and getting in the game.
.
It's as if the scammers have large shiny electric red neon signs across their chests that say “AGW SCAMMER” and yet the media reports gorebull warming/climate change/disruptification/toast induced temperature fluctuation (or whatever they're calling it this week) with a straight face. The rubes still gobble it up like dogs to vomit.
Fortunately, most people are no longer fooled by Al Gore going on TV and saying, “Gotcher nose!”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.