And he will populate the ship with BushBots:
CONSERVATISM IS IRRELEVANT. THE CONSTITUTION IS IRRELEVANT. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED INTO THE DUBYA.
Posted on 01/10/2004 3:23:10 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) -
President Bush (news - web sites), in his big space policy announcement on Wednesday, will call for replacing aging U.S. space shuttles with a new generation spacecraft to get Americans back to the moon and on to Mars, officials said on Saturday.
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Seeking to give NASA (news - web sites) a new mission a year after the shuttle Columbia tragedy and to provide a space vision for his re-election campaign, Bush will set a goal of returning to the moon by the middle of the next decade and establishing a human presence there as a stepping stone to an eventual manned mission to Mars.
Bush will urge Congress to approve development of a new capsule-type spacecraft, called a crew exploration vehicle, capable of performing a variety of missions, including trips to the moon and the International Space Station (news - web sites), officials said.
It would be launched using conventional rockets much like the Apollo capsules of the 1960s and 1970s and would have an escape system that the shuttle does not have.
The new spacecraft would replace a planned orbital space plane that had been expected to follow the space shuttle.
The United States no longer has a rocket powerful enough to launch an Apollo-style moon mission. And although the Saturn 5 moon rocket was developed in just five years, it was dropped from production three years after Neil Armstrong's first moon landing in 1969.
To launch the new spacecraft, the United States may have to rely on giant Russian Soyuz or French Ariane rockets.
To pay for the costly new initiative, Bush would increase the NASA budget by 5 percent a year and divert the $3.5 billion a year for space shuttle once it is retired in six or eight years on completion of the International Space Station.
"We're not going to drop everything we're doing. That has kind of gotten lost in all this noise about going to Mars. NASA still has to get the shuttle going again and finish the space station," said John Logsdon, a George Washington University space expert.
Democratic presidential candidates are ridiculing Bush for talking of an ambitious space initiative when the budget deficit is expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year.
"I believe in big dreams and big goals and I am excited about the next phase of space exploration. But George Bush must be from another planet if he thinks that, with his fiscal priorities, we can get there and at the same time make America stronger," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites) of Connecticut.
Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the moon/Mars initiative will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, possibly as much as $1 trillion.
Bush is at his Texas ranch for the weekend before he attends a summit of North and South American leaders in Monterrey, Mexico on Monday and Tuesday. He will deliver his space speech at NASA headquarters in Washington.
Hi Norm! 67 degrees here today. Warm enough to wash the dogs!!
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But think of all the jobs that could be created and such. We have a few tax cuts still in the pipeline. Altho I wish the Capital Gains and Estate taxes were extinct too.
We should have never left space when we did anyway, imo. The Moon should already have manned outposts.
And he will populate the ship with BushBots:
CONSERVATISM IS IRRELEVANT. THE CONSTITUTION IS IRRELEVANT. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED INTO THE DUBYA.
Unless, of course, certain influential congressmen are likely to gain federal programs for their districts...
NASA is the epitome of pathetic.
Have a lovely evening, and don't miss your tee time tomorrow.
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