Posted on 02/14/2010 12:43:48 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Industry advocates are voicing concern with U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s Moon-bound Constellation program and the threat it poses to America’s aerospace work force and U.S. strategic missile arsenals, but Defense Department officials said the two agencies are forging a plan to sustain the nation’s solid-rocket motor industrial base.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) is among those railing against Obama’s proposal to scrap NASA’s plan to replace its space shuttle fleet with new rockets and spacecraft in favor of relying on commercial crew taxis to get astronauts to the international space station and back.
“This is not money-saving. This is having some kind of half-baked scheme that we can commercialize this,” said Bishop, whose district is home to ATK Space Systems, the Magna, Utah-based solid-rocket motor manufacturer that is building the first stage of Constellation’s Ares 1 rocket and major subsystems for its launch abort system. ATK executives told investors Feb. 4 that canceling Ares 1 would cost the company $650 million in contract backlog.
While Bishop’s congressional district stands to lose 2,000 jobs under Obama’s proposal, the outspoken U.S. missile defense proponent said there is more at stake than northern Utah’s employment outlook. Shutting down Constellation, he said, threatens the nation’s ability to produce solid-rocket motors needed for ballistic missiles.
“It’s not a spigot you can turn on and off,” Bishop said in a Feb. 9 interview. “Once they’re out the door and in the unemployment lines, they’re not coming back.”
ATK and Sacramento, Calif.-based Aerojet are the only U.S. companies producing large solid-rocket motors for space launchers and strategic missiles.
Gary Payton, a retired military astronaut and former senior NASA official who serves as U.S. Air Force deputy under secretary for space programs, told reporters Feb. 4 the service was still assessing the industrial base .
(Excerpt) Read more at spacenews.com ...
Sic itur ad astra
Kenyans don’t care about space or exploring. Democrats either, look at what they did to us with the super collider. The euros are just now turning in their system that’s less powerful than we had in the can more or less. They do this on science and military every chance they get.
Republicans should be all over this.... crickets.. except for one.
When a country loses its will to explore, research and dream it will die.
hey, just ask the AVRO engineers if they would ever come back to Canada after what Dief-the Chief did to the Arrow...
They put a man on the moon, yet...
They do this on science and military every chance they get.
Apparently the only science they are interested in is the science of global climate change. The fact that ISN’T a science, does not seem to deter them at all. I don’t even want to get started on the military, which take its lumps probably more than most. Oh there may be one science they have an interest in, that would be the science of population control through its various means.
The democrats will only be on board for science and technology when they figure out how they can tax it. Of course, they support global warming and Cap and Trade. Those will result in huge tax increases.
10 BILLION for fat arsed kisds but not a dime for space... FUBO!
LLS
“relying on commercial crew taxis” Just when you think Obama can’t get any more stupid he will prove you wrong.
Just when you think Obama can’t get any more stupid he will prove you wrong.
Just how stupid can one man be? The wait is killing me, and I’m not even holding my breath.
Same deal with the laser anti-missile program he suspended. Once people are in new careers, they're gone. And all the little bits of "tribal knowledge" that never got written down will be lost, making restart VERY difficult. Even the stuff that WAS written down depends on the reader having a certain amount of background knowledge, to be understandable.
And who is going to want to major in that field now?
Same deal with the laser anti-missile program he suspended. Once people are in new careers, they're gone. And all the little bits of "tribal knowledge" that never got written down will be lost, making restart VERY difficult. Even the stuff that WAS written down depends on the reader having a certain amount of background knowledge, to be understandable.
And who is going to want to major in that field now?
"All over this" may be one way of putting it...
Gingrich & Walker: Obama's Brave Re-boot of NASA
Washington Times
New space policy cedes Moon to China, the International Space Station to Russia and Liberty to the Ages
Former Senator Jack Schmitt (R-NM)
Apollo 17 lunar module pilot
And “Whitey’s” not on the Moon.
Russia has already stated that it will double the amount that they charge to take our astronauts to the space station. Exactly how is that saving money or better for security or science ? I guess we’ll have to ask the Kenyan for the answer ?
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