Posted on 06/13/2010 9:18:32 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg
Nasa has begun to wind down construction of the rockets and spacecraft that were to have taken astronauts back to the Moon effectively dismantling the US human spaceflight programme despite a congressional ban on its doing so.
Legislators have accused President Obamas Administration of contriving to slip the termination of the Constellation programme through the back door to avoid a battle on Capitol Hill.
Constellation aimed to build upon what was arguably Americas greatest technological achievement, the first lunar landing of 1969, by launching new expeditions to the Moon and to Mars and worlds beyond. Mr Obama proposed in February that it should be scrapped because it was over budget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation, but he has met opposition in Congress, which has yet to approve his plan.The head of Nasa, Major-General Charlie Bolden an Obama appointee has now written to aerospace contractors telling them to cut back immediately on Constellation-related projects costing almost $1 billion (£690 million), to comply with regulations requiring them to budget for possible contract termination costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Hey, the muzzies don’t need to go to the moon, they already have a big rock that Allah personally sent to them!
No worries.. Job losses will be offset by more Census “firings then re-hirings”.
Still, Obama wants to kill it because it's a symbol of American exceptionalism. Period.
Whatever Obama's reason would be for eliminating the manned space program and chopping back on NASA, you'll have a whole group of FReepers right there agreeing with the bottom line results of doing that.
And, I guess my point for bringing that up, at all ... is ... it's mighty hard to support a program like NASA and the manned space program, when a good chunk of conservatives themselves don't even support it -- and then you've got a Democrat President ready and willing to "chop it to pieces" too ...
The implementation of Nationalized Health Care is so much easier.. /s
Those same folks surely dont think he is going to use it to build up the military.
This is yet another sign that he hopes to make the USA into the usa.
Well, from what I've seen from those FReeprs who are against NASA and the manned space program -- they will be cheering on the chopping up of NASA and it's manned space program. I haven't seen that they care what is done with the money, as long as NASA gets chopped up. Some of those FReepers "really" don't like NASA for some reason. Maybe they want to turn the USA into the usa, too... for all I know.
I guess I should start picking out Burka’s on e-bay for my wife at this rate.
And what would you like to see them do?
As long as it's their version of 'usa'.
It seems to me that NASA lost "that vision thing" and, in so doing, it lost a lot of popular support. It's too bad, really. Manned space exploration is important for a host of reasons - just ask the Chinese.
And what would you like to see them do?
Well, I think what I want is a "lost cause" so it's not going to make any difference. I mean we've got a good number of conservatives who would be happy chopping down NASA and getting rid of the manned space program as wasteful and a boondoggle. And then we've got the President who is more than willing to do that, too. So, I think that's a "done deal" no matter what I think about it.
But, if I were to have something to say about it, I would have already been working diligently on the next generation of whatever "replacement" there can be for the shuttle program, then develop a base on the moon and prepare for that being a jump-off point for missions to Mars.
However, like I said.. that's "finished" ... so I'll just watch old re-runs of Star Trek instead ... LOL ...
The Freepers against NASA are a small vocal minority.
Most seem to have an extreme libertarian view of things I have noticed.
NASA is nation defining agency, it is a manifestation of our pioneer spirit, of our nation born of the frontiers.
It is the R&D of the nation. It is our future.
The nations that lead on the frontiers, dictate the course of human history.
Naturally Obama wants to screw it up.
I truly despise that man to the core.
I am living in a national nightmare.
The list, ping
... yes, THE Plutarch
Amen and amen.
Establishing a US moon base would be cool. It would send a signal to the world that the USA is the leader in technology and culture. In a time when democracy and freedom is being questioned,
Americans returning to the moon would be worth it blaze the trail for the future. JFK was right when he set that goal. Watch this three minute clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYb_mhiE-qU
The moon landing was our highest technological feat that inspired technical achievements. Americans should be the ones setting the standards, don’t you think?
those who currently hold power do not want mankind to explore, they want to enslave and exploit mankind
Tu Ca wrote:
“The elephant in the room that everyone is pretending not to see is the problem with NASA’s entrenched contractors (NASA doesn’t build rockets, their contractors do; Boeing, locmart, ATK, P&W...)
These contractors are in most cases single source suppliers. If you want an SRB for the shuttle, there is only one company in the world to buy it from. The result has been exploding costs. Project Constellation was hemorrhaging money while slipping years behind schedule. For example, the Ares I was predicted to cost $40 billion to develop while being five years behind schedule. That’s 100 times what SpaceX’s Falcon 9 cost to get into space. The second stage engine for the Ares I was from the Apollo project, decades ago. P&W got a $1.2 Billion contract to ‘upgrade’ it. That’s ten times what Space spent to create a new company from scratch, and two new rocket engines from scratch, and the launch sites, and a rocket (Falcon 1), and make it into space.
These huge fat entrenched contractors also have a few politicians on their side (big surprise there) who are good at making a lot of noise. Canceling Project Constellation was the right thing to do. Cancel one bloated project and give a young lean company with fire in the belly a small contract. It should shake thing up a bit.”
(From the Times article comments)
It is the R&D of the nation. It is our future.
The thing about that, is it's wasteful ... because many things in R&D don't pan out. That's just the way it goes. So, those who figure that the government shouldn't be "wasting money" will hit at R&D first ... because it's an easy target.
Thus, you get rid of R&D as a very wasteful expense, you see...
That's what you're dealing with, when everything is right down to the "dollars and cents" of government spending and you want to chop everything you can.
R&D is an easy target for chopping and NASA is also an especially easy target.
We have a lot of conservatives that have a lot of ideas on where and where not to spend money. Some want to see NASA gone, others defense slashed. I'm sure just as many want to see NASA stick around for the moon and Mars as want to see them defunded.
So nothing is a "done deal" and I sure as hell haven't seen any fat ladies around yet.
I think that in part it can be attributed to the fact that the moon landing was a Democratic program. Nixon killed it as soon as he could. Asa long time space fan, it amazes me that an endeavor that has resulted in so many real scientific achievements, and of course which has contributed to a strong military posture,
can be dismissed by so-called conservatives as a boon-doggle. I call them the ultimate isolationists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.