Nasa is make work welfare for geeks. It is beyond worthless . it is a horrible multi billion dollar drain going nowhere. It should have been privatized about 1991 after everything had been done except politically correct crews full of women and foreigners. Shut up GEEEK!!
If they ever actually do any space science, it's only because brave Americans are doing their all for their country and their planet, both in space and on the ground, despite the impossible conditions and constraints they work under.
Wishing them a safe journey to LEO, and a safe return.
Given the current administration, my bet's that the next words spoken on the Moon will be in Mandarin, and in about 18 years.
From the WSJ:
Current budget constraints confronting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration make it virtually impossible to sustain manned missions to the Moon, Mars or further into space in coming decades, a blue-ribbon study group is expected to tell the White House.
The findings mean the Obama administration, which created the commission, faces a stark test of its commitment to pursue expensive human space exploration efforts despite ballooning federal deficits.
The advisory group, headed by former Lockheed Martin Corp. Chairman Norman Augustine, concluded at its final public meeting Wednesday that NASA's existing manned exploration plans are "not executable" under today's budget guidance from the White House. That makes it unlikely for NASA to continue an $80 billion-plus program to develop a new manned capsule, a family of next-generation rockets and a lunar lander intended to carry astronauts back to the Moon.
But it isn't clear what alternatives the White House is likely to embrace. The commission, among other things, laid out an array of manned exploration programs it considers more viable. They include using versions of existing military rockets to access space, relying on derivatives of the space shuttle to boost cargo and astronauts past low-earth orbit, and creating fuel depots in space to help power missions to explore asteroids and other parts of deep space.
...
All of the options recognize the importance of commercial cargo and crew delivery to the future of the International Space Station, said former astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the commission. "We need to get NASA out of the business of getting crew" to low-earth orbit, she added.
Ms. Ride said manned "exploration doesn't look viable" without significantly larger NASA budgets. The panel seeks to eventually boost NASA's manned exploration budget -- currently projected at roughly $9 billion annually -- between 25% and 50% over the next few years.
And that isn't going to happen. The program will limp along, accomplishing nothing, except to line the pockets of congressional favourites. It's not that the US Congress is so corrupt, it's that they're so very, very cheap. And the corruption is Bipartisan.