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 ...
You forgot to add, “Can you hear me now?”
So sorry, Kev. The Dems have come a long way (down) from the days of JFK.
Amen, my friend. I think some here may not understand, but I do.
no surprise here.....
I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Until we elect better leadership, the era of American greatness will be over.
Shame on us.....
I know... JFK would not be a rat.. For the record John McCain was a big supporter of going back to the moon. I think Obama just lost the space coast..
This will certainly appease the masses.
Leave it to a lefty to turn an agency, once renowned for its science and engineering greatness, into a bunch of navel gazers.
What a huge surprise. ;’)
You most certainly did miss something... there’s supposed to be two ** with the ( ) inclosed in { } with the $% at the end! How could you!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2431633/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2435350/posts?page=37#37
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2435720/posts
Obama’s Renewed Focus on Jobs Could Come at Expense of Moon Mission
FoxNews | January 27, 2010 | Stephen Clark
Posted on 01/27/2010 4:29:54 PM PST by The_Victor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2438891/posts
Our greatest adventure, gone. He takes even the sense of ourselves from us.
I’ve emailed every rep I have all the way up to OZERO.
I’ve sent a donation to NSS and it’s going to be a fight for sure. I expect getting things properly on course again will probably take the next President.
There are allies in congress to fight this and it will not go down easily. Obama is not a god, he is not unbeatable.
Any ordinary man would have given up by now.
I ain’t ordinary.
NASA didn't kill the DC-X, Clinton did (line item veto, like he killed off the Clementine 2 mission to test Brilliant Pebbles space based missile defense.)
While I agree a mission to “explore” the moon is pointless. What additional data can be found there?
Hard to answer that question, considering we haven’t explored enough of it to answer.
“NASA needs to be outsourced to private corporations, that can work freely of all the government red tape”
What private corporation anywhere in the US can “work freely of all the government red tape”?
“Imagine what Rutan, or some of the other private individual organizations could do if they have half the funding NASA has.”
Where do you propose the money to fund them will come from? Where do you think most of the money NASA gets goes? Private coporations, just not only small outfits like Burt’s.
“Nations with the debt load we have have no business fooling with frivolities like manned space exploration”
Nations unwilling to maintian a technology base will never be able to pay down that debt load.
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