"And we have liftoff of Hopey-Changey 1, the first solo attempt to bring socialism, economic ruin, and interplanetary weakness to the solar system and beyond."
Posted on 07/04/2011 3:07:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As NASA prepares to launch its last space shuttle — ending 30 years in which large teams of creative scientists and engineers sent winged spaceships into orbit — it is facing what may be a bigger challenge: a brain drain that threatens to undermine safety as well as the agency’s plans.
Space experts say the best and brightest often head for the doors when rocket lines get marked for extinction, dampening morale and creating hidden threats. They call it the “Team B” effect.
“The good guys see the end coming and leave,” said Albert D. Wheelon, a former aerospace executive and Central Intelligence Agency official. “You’re left with the B students.”
NASA acknowledges the effect and its attendant dangers. It has taken hundreds of steps, including retention bonuses for skilled employees, new perks like travel benefits and more safety drills. Through cuts and attrition in recent years, the shuttle work force has declined to 7,000 workers from about 17,000.
“The downsizing has been well managed and has achieved an acceptable level of risk,” said Joseph W. Dyer, a retired Navy vice admiral and the chairman of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. After a slow start, “NASA and its industry partners did a genuinely excellent job” in planning for the shuttle’s retirement, he said. But he conceded, “There’s added risk anytime you downsize.”
Nobody is predicting problems for the coming flight of the Atlantis, the 135th and last launching in the shuttle program. The event is scheduled for Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, before an estimated one million spectators.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Fly a mullah to the moon
Let him pray among the stars
Let him see what Allah’s like
On a-Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold his hand
In other words, Allah, bless thee
Fill his heart with prayer
And let him pray for ever more
Allah is all he longs for
All he worships and adores
In other words, peace be unto you
In other words, we worship you
Acceptable to whom? To those who take the risk? Or to those who sit behind desks while others take the risk?
Space, yet another government-funded program where you can get even a sidearm-wearing, flag-waving super conservative FReeper to turn in seconds into a tax and spend free fairy skittle mooching dependent.
Think Constitutionally, dear friends. If it’s a good idea, the market can support it on its own. If it’s a bad idea, it will need billions in taxpayer dollars.
Well we always jihad on venus
we always have a haj on mars
We’re meeting all the muslim people
we’re space Khalifa around the stars...
FIRE HANSEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Every government agency should just change it’s name to the Department of Global Warming: EPA, Energy, Education, Agriculture, NASA, . . . It’s all they do, anymore.
"And we have liftoff of Hopey-Changey 1, the first solo attempt to bring socialism, economic ruin, and interplanetary weakness to the solar system and beyond."
Yes. Just sand. That’s what the who explored just the Sahara Desert said.
LOL!!!
When I wrote “Fly a mullah to the moon,” I heard that tune playing ... but I couldn’t come up with the rest of the lyrics.
Great job! Do we have some fantastic people on FR or what?
Yes, sadly. Fortunately, the Muzlims seem to be too backwards even to take advantage of our multi-billion dollar gift.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Beware the moon mission....
Sometimes I wonder if it is strategic incompetence on the part of whichever bureaucrat is running the place. Set your goal far enough out and you will never get to the point of failing to meet it.
We are almost certain to find something new and useful. Already new minerals not otherwise found on earth have been identified in meteorites.
The next president should not even consider setting a goal outside of 8 years.
Here's your mission - get a job with Virgin, Spacex or start your own company.
Apparently, that's what this administration wants.
We've got Obamacare to pay for....NASA's out.
How's that motivational speaking career going?
Bingo.....karma (what goes around comes around) is a pain in the arse. Those AGW-Obama bots at NASA are reaping what they have sown. =.=
Mars has the largest mountain, Olympus Mons, in the Solar System. At 82,000 feet, it is three times the height of Everest. Mars also has the deepest and largest canyon in the Solar system, Valles Marineris. Valles Marineris is 3,000 kilometers long, 600 kilometers wide, and 8 kilometers deep. For comparison, the Grand Canyon is 800 kilometers long, 30 k wide, and 1.8 K deep.
But then, why go? Perhaps, just because it is there and humans desire to explore. There is a whole universe waiting to be seen and explored. It's God's creation, and it's worth a look.
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