Posted on 12/01/2008 2:22:01 PM PST by Joiseydude
WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year.
Obama pledged during his campaign to inject an additional $2 billion into NASA aimed in part at narrowing the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the introduction of a successor system.
While NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his senior managers are adamant that Ares and Orion are the right vehicles to fill that role, Obama did not endorse either system by name during his campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Cuz we were the smart kids in school, who actually read and thought about technological advancement and the ways science could help mankind. While our doofus liberal classmates thought about the social programs that we ought to have implemented so that maybe none of ‘em would ever have to be smart and work. / sarc
yer call sign gave me a start, my aunt is kc5ukv. ;-)
-kd5bso
I agree to cutting back on wasting money on NASA. Manned space flight is a huge waste of time. The sooner we stop deluding ourselves about the notion of inter-planetary travel, the better.
Four times during the his presidential campaign Obama changed his position on NASA depending when he received criticism. First he said he wanted to transfer NASA funding to education, then reversed course when he got some flack. A few months later, Obama again said he wanted to cut NASA funding to go somewhere else. He went later on to deny what he said.
I agree to cutting back on wasting money on NASA. Manned space flight is a huge waste of time. The sooner we stop deluding ourselves about the notion of inter-planetary travel, the better.
Outsource space.
The Fed Govt turned NASA into a public works program like the Post Office after all the Werner Von Braun Germans retired.
Moron Senator Bill Nelson D-FL will fight off more NASA dough while he and Mel Martinez R-FL will push for amnesty.
That may be. However, I am no fan of the current NASA. I have worked programs where we had to build things for NASA and to my mind they are overly wasteful and heavily bureaucratic.
And, the minute we dump out....our enemies overtake us. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that Obama would do this. As a candidate he made it clear he would cut defense spending and would not weaponize space.
The Russians copied our shuttle and never had a chance to launch it . If they could build it from a scale model sold at Toys R us, why can’t we build a few new ones to replace the old ? Maybe we ought to outsource it to Toyota .
In 12 years we’ll be looking to the Chinese space program for leadership.
There are a few things the government can do better than the private sector simply because the private sector is unwilling to take the risks. And the ultimate goal is payback. Government funding of large research and science projects pays for itself eventually. A lot of products we use today came from the space program. We can still be conservative without being dogmatic.
Why are people so whiny about weaponizing space anyway? Even some supposedly on our side are against it. Heck, if they want war to be ‘fair’, they should go back to the old Napoleonic era of warfare strategy where everyone was equally armed and stood in lines facing each other.
Son of a __ would rather spend money on bailing out student loans and free national health care for deadbeats , not to mention a variety of other make work BS. As long as it goes to his “sponsors” (which dont include NASA)
You go for it, Hussein. Slash that to make sure you have enough money to give to the Palestinians and the Abortionists.
NASA does much more than just ferry people and equipment to the space station. The technological advancements that have come as a result of NACA and then NASA research have made the 21st century so tech heavy. Your heart monitors. the imaging systems for PET and CT scans, all sorts of computer advancements, airplane and general aviation improvements and the list continues. Eliminating NASA is a guaranteed way to put an abrupt halt to much good research
That was hilarious. Thanks for the link.
Shoot, the simplest reasons, spy and communication satellites, both vital to our military infrastructure.
Of course. Next the Messiah will want how to get ACORN involved in NASA.
I knew that [expletive x5] didn't mean it! Of course, his transition team and Conyers will do the dirty work. Obama will cite "the Will of the People as voiced by Congress" as his reason to renege on his pledge. Watch that theme to be repeated over and over. McCain was an idiot for letting so many false promises go unchallenged.
...One thing I’ve never understood is why conservatives are more supportive of space exploration than liberals. In fact, I think conservatives are even more likely to support government funding of a space program than liberals....
A fair and good question to be sure. Aside from the ancillary scientific benefits that have been mentioned (and there are many, many more), I believe that there is a deeper, more fundamental reason.
Space, to borrow a phrase, is the final frontier. And, I suspect that many modern day Republicans are frontiersman at heart. Space still represents a destination that is yet to be discovered and I believe that many conservatives find that unresistingly appealing.
Finally, what is wonderfully ironic about the liberal vs conservative space exploration debate is science itself. If you believe the popular media narrative of the last 6-7 years, it’s the Republicans that are anti-science on almost every front. But with both NASA and DOD near and deep space exploration, it is almost always Republicans that champion the cause. I find the dichotomy of this fascinating.
Personally, I do believe NASA needs to be on a tighter leash, but I don’t believe any can’t belittle the benefits space exploration has brought to the US and to humanity in general. It’s money well spent.
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