Posted on 01/27/2010 7:07:00 AM PST by rightcoast
NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way.
When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.
There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.
In their place, according to White House insiders, agency officials, industry executives and congressional sources familiar with Obama's long-awaited plans for the space agency, NASA will look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit. But that day will be years possibly even a decade or more away.
In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects principally, researching and monitoring climate change and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system possible.
There will also be funding for private companies to develop capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis to take astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International Space Station a major change in the way the agency has done business for the past 50 years...
See link for full article...
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
2020s not a long time away. China should be able to send an astronaut to the moon in 15 years. Maybe less.
I feared it but didn’t want to really believe it. This is the exact opposite direction the SPACE agency needs to be going. If he gets his way, US manned spaceflight is done. We just handed the keys to China or anyone else who wants to take our place. I think that was completely intentional; he doesn’t believe the US should be dominant in anything.
True, and NASA has actually done things, sometimes great things.
Who was ever educated by the Department of Education?
How much food was produced by the Department of Agriculture?
How much energy has been generated by the Department of Energy?
I would rather spend money on a department that advances science and technology than giant bureaucracies that advance nothing but the careers of bureaucrats.
The "powers that be" in Florida. Heck they don't even have a plan for dealing with the loss of the Shuttle Program. You would think that they would have learned after the Apollo program shut down. Brevard County is going to be hurting, more so than it already is, and for a very long time.
National
A$$
Sucking
Administration..............
Robert Heinlein once testified before Congress that a near-fatal neurological problem he had suffered had been treated with several technologies that existed soley because of the space program. CAT and telemetry were among them. Telemetry is obvious, CAT was developed for NDI of spacecraft parts.
My brother’s life was saved by CAT after an auto accident. He was outside the golden hour and should have been dead at 18. Today he lives a happy and productive life, and pays taxes.
And here’s the best part: The Apollo Program cost each American 5 cents per day. Meanwhile, we pay 28 cents per dollar spent on welfare in administration costs, and that’s if we assume that spending the other 72 percent is a good value...and we know it’s quite the opposite.
Senator Proxmire, go back to the grave, and take your dairy price supports with you.
I guess they'll have to change the name to
N ational
A rtificial
S cience
A dministration
2020s not a long time away. China should be able to send an astronaut to the moon in 15 years. Maybe less.
Aircraft parts, too. Excellent example and one that I should have noted myself, given that I'm a pilot and have built a couple of experimental airplanes. You are absolutely correct. A lot of the medical imaging technology we use today, like ultrasound and CAT are directly attributable to technology that came from the space program in the 1960's.
Ahhh, the indelible Clinton legacy rears it's ugly head. I wonder if the Chicom's will name their first military base on the moon after old Slick Willy?
He found a more important program in which to invest: ACORN Community Organizing.
How do you like that, Charlie Crist???
Ooooh, I LOVE that one! The hoax has been exposed, why do the libtards keep trying to grow it when most people already disbelieve it? Does he not realize how poorly this shift of focus will be received, or does he think it’ll just fly under the radar?
actually JSC is in Texas 22. The old Delay seat, now held by Pete Olson
A rat done bit mah sissuh Nell and whitey’s on the moon.
Huh face an’ ahm begin to swell and whitey’s on the moon.
Ah cain’t pay no docta bill an’ whitey’s on the moon.
Ten yeahs fum now ah’ll be payin still an’ whitey’s on the moon.
The man jis upped mah rent lass night an whiteys on the moon.
No hot wata no toilet no lights an whiteys on the moon
I wunda why he’s uppin me and whiteys on the moon.
Ah wuz already payn’im fiffy a week an whiteys on the moon.
(Yes, I know NASA administrator Charlie Bolden is black. This is going to mean the recession comes home to Houston.)
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