Posted on 02/12/2010 12:58:14 PM PST by La Enchiladita
...By the end of this year, there will be no shuttle, no U.S. manned space program, no way for us to get into space. We're not talking about Mars or the moon here. We're talking about low-Earth orbit, which the U.S. has dominated for nearly half a century and from which it is now retiring with nary a whimper.
Our absence from low-Earth orbit was meant to last a few years, the interval between the retirement of the fatally fragile space shuttle and its replacement with the Constellation program (Ares booster, Orion capsule, Altair lunar lander) to take astronauts more cheaply and safely back to space.
But the Obama 2011 budget kills Constellation. Instead, we shall have nothing. For the first time since John Glenn flew in 1962, the U.S. will have no access of its own for humans into space – and no prospect of getting there in the foreseeable future.
...Of course, the whole Mars project as substitute for the moon is simply a ruse. It's like the classic bait-and-switch for high-tech military spending: Kill the doable in the name of some distant sophisticated alternative, which either never gets developed or is simply killed later in the name of yet another, even more sophisticated alternative of the further future.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Fifty years ago, Kennedy opened the New Frontier. Obama has just shut it.
He has just shut it, and with it America’s greatness.
Okay, Ted is dead. Patches is afraid to seek re-election, and the space program is finished.
I guess we're just too busy worshipping Obama to keep worshipping the Kennedy family.
“Obama’s is a constricted inward-looking call to retreat.”
You can’t keep ballooning entitlements with space programs and that’s his base...they want more and more and he’s gonna give it to em...he’ll just “spread it around” which is what thieves and scoundrels do...and besides, like all the lefties say, it’s not like anything IMPORTANT ever came out of space programs...
- big eye roll -
http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html#
Worse yet he’s handed the high ground to anybody who wants it.
The Kenyan pustule’s budget is DOA!
Obama’s NASA budget perfectly captures the difference in spirit between Kennedy’s liberalism and Obama’s. Kennedy’s was an expansive, bold, outward-looking summons. Obama’s is a constricted inward-looking call to retreat.
This is merely the difference between “MODERNISM” and “POSTMODERNISM”. Bammy is totally postmodern, but so are most of the dem party. So if you want progress, as understood by a modern, you will have to vote for conservatives not libs/socialists/commies. Its that simple.
NASA was good when the Germans ran it but now it is more like a Dem ACORN jobs program. NASA Ia a global warming monitoring bureaucracy.
People voted for this. The idiots who voted for Sen Bill Nelson in FL, including NASA employees, voted for this.
Keep watching TV and spots on TV which keeps the liberal media alive and keeps you a serf.
On BO’s list of “achievements,” destruction of our space program will be near the top of the list. Just one more indication that he neither understands our country, nor loves it.
The Nanny state down here trumps the bold pursuit of greatness out there.
The Kenyan pustule’s budget is DOA!
When you consider the NASA budget was the design of LBJ and was focused on TX, FL, LA and CA, I think bammy sees it as a way to punish his political competitors. He certainly sees anyone qualified to work as NASA as not part of his base. So big surprise, bammy punishes the Kennedy mystique by collapsing their only major lasting endeavor. I guess dead Ted picked wrong when chosing to support bammy over hillary. Who would of thought dead Ted could make a bad decision?
He also wants to coopt its mission and turn it into a “climate change” agency.
This is disgusting and disgraceful. The thing in the WH has got to go find himself a new job before he ruins us.
My daughter & son-in-law are both systems engineers on the Orion Project.
Looks like they will be looking for jobs now. Maybe Obama will be creating more high tech jobs. Looks like the hoppey-changie thing is not working out too well.
Of course, neither of them voted for Obama.
I remember the moon landing and how proud Americans were. We need something like that again.
Somebody should do an analysis of exactly how many jobs were supported directly and indirectly by the old space program. how many manufacturing, engineering, shipping, etc etc. How much did our engineering knowledge expand, any advances in materials science? Computers? Other advances in technology that created whole new industries? Democrats always say the money should be spent on earth, well every penny is spent on earth, and the knowledge that was gained, the advances in nearly every branch of science, and engineering, with all of the new innovations that spurred from it were a return far more than the investment. If we hadn’t gone to the moon, I most likely wouldn’t be posting this from my ubiquitous cell phone that even poor people can affard.
From the campaign trail, February 2008...
Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs
February 29, 2008 :: News
MissileThreat.com
A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.
The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:
Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.
First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[i.e. not win it]
Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
I will slow our development of future combat systems.
And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.
Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert [they are NOT on "hair-trigger alert" now -etl], and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.
You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.
Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:
http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp
"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."
_____________________________________________________
"I will not weaponize space"
"I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems"
2008 Pentagon Report (March 2008):
China's Growing Military Space Power
By Leonard David
Special Correspondent, SPACE.com
March 6, 2008
GOLDEN, Colorado — A just-released Pentagon report spotlights a growing U.S. military concern that China is developing a multi- dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.
Furthermore, last year's successful test by China of a direct-ascent, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to destroy its own defunct weather satellite, the report adds, underscores that country's expansion from the land, air, and sea dimensions of the traditional battlefield into the space and cyber-space domains.
Although China's commercial space program has utility for non- military research, that capability demonstrates space launch and control know-how that have direct military application. Even the Chang'e 1 — the Chinese lunar probe now circling the Moon — is flagged in the report as showcasing China's ability "to conduct complicated space maneuvers — a capability which has broad implications for military counterspace operations."
To read the entire publication [29.67MB/pdf], see U.S. Dept of Defense:
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Report_08.pdf
_____________________________________________________
From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
There needs to be a hitchhiker thumb in the blue circle now.
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