I actually agree with cutting nasa. $20billion per year and they got nothing to show for it for the amount thats going into it. A private company can achieve the same thing with just $1b/year
Private enterprises will be regulated and taxed so much it will never get off the ground (pun intended), or will die a slow death.
The US should unilaterally allow US companies to own parts of the Moon. If you can get there, set up a factory, and extract resources, it’s yours. Use the profit motive. I believe there are international laws that say that you can’t own the Moon. We ought to tell them to sod off.
NASA, n0, but the USAF will still be sending humans into orbit.
2011: NASA Becomes EPA Department, James Hansen Appointed Director
So from now on, far as the USA is concerned, the path into outer space will be the John Galt Line.
Fine with me, just keep the bureaucrats out of the way.
Dagny Confronts the Union:
http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/atlas-shrugged-movie-scene-dagny-confronts-union
Obama’s plan will allow Rissia to tell us what and when things can go into space.
Oh and that new technology stuff sheit can that idea,India winks too.
Lots of shortsighted ignorance on this thread. For starters: modern communications, or satellite communications came out of the space program, as well as satellite TV and GPS systems and many technologies used by our military.
Does anyone believe those innovations and new industries would have come into being for the Western nations without the US space program? And that’s just a partial list.
From Obama’s point-of-view, he probably can’t stand for the US to lead the world in any endeavor other than apologizing for what he considers her sins against the Third World.
People can sing Kumbaya and hold hands and pretend that working with the Russians is a viable way to stay in manned space exploration, but just observing the Russians behavior around the world might not convince the more objection observers.
This is a bit troubling to me. Although I do believe Nasa has lost sight of its intended goal which is to put men in space.
Nasa has wasted billions looking for life in outer space, if they’d just stuck to their mission by putting man in space we’d have a station on the moon by now.
They’ve wasted half a century in ‘research’ looking for some stupid microbe on a floating rock billions of miles from earth when we already had the technology needed to accomplish a moon station in the 60s. For cryin’ out loud they put a dune buggy on the moon back then!!!
There is a market for Space. Get the FedGov out of the way, including the EPA and any idiotic treaties we may have stupidly signed, and we'd have vacation hotels on the Moon before the end of the current decade.
It would have been true no matter who won in 2008. Really, the solution is private industry and the federal government should be promoting that.
It warms the cockles of my heart to see how many Freepers agree with the genuflector-in-chief. The security of the country depends on the US playing a dominant role in space.
The answer is probably sooner than most people think. Space X, a private company founded by Elon Musk (who is also the CEO of Tesla ), is set to launch the Falcon Heavy in 2013 at Vandenberg AFB. The Falcon Heavy will be the largest rocket since the Saturn V and have a payload of 53,000 kg. The Shuttle only has a payload of 24,400.
SpaceX will also be making a Spacecraft called the Dragon, which can configured to support 7 passengers, and can be carried into orbit by the Falcon Heavy.
SpaceX will also have a launch pad at Cap Canaveral.
I'm sorry to see the Shuttle program ending and I wish we had a next gen Shuttle ready to go. But I'm happy to see that companies like SpaceX will be stepping up and providing the heavy lift capability our country needs.
Here is link to a video of the Falcon Heavy. Pretty cool imo.
The answer is probably sooner than most people think. Space X, a private company founded by Elon Musk (who is also the CEO of Tesla ), is set to launch the Falcon Heavy in 2013 at Vandenberg AFB. The Falcon Heavy will be the largest rocket since the Saturn V and have a payload of 53,000 kg. The Shuttle only has a payload of 24,400.
SpaceX will also be making a Spacecraft called the Dragon, which can configured to support 7 passengers, and can be carried into orbit by the Falcon Heavy.
SpaceX will also have a launch pad at Cap Canaveral.
I'm sorry to see the Shuttle program ending and I wish we had a next gen Shuttle ready to go. But I'm happy to see that companies like SpaceX will be stepping up and providing the heavy lift capability our country needs.
Here is link to a video of the Falcon Heavy. Pretty cool imo.
NASA is just another sinkhole for money now. They are most concerned with "moslem outreach" and "global warming". What does that have to do with exploring space? Spin the critical science bits off to DARPA, Livermore, JPL etc. Just close down the rest.
Just as the nascent aircraft industry got off the ground with military contracts and airlines were created to service air mail routes, military and commercial necessities should drive the space industry.
Take the money you save by closing NASA and expand the military use of space. A crash program could produce a small a man rated space ferry in a very short time, especially if you build on past programs. Billion dollar prizes and tax incentives could result in a flourishing space industry in a few years, centered on the tourist and manufacturing sectors.
Beyond that, the holy grail is a colony/military post on the far side of the moon. This is the ultimate high ground, virtually unreachable with current technology. If the west doesn't claim this high ground, the Chinese will. If you have to rely on the Russians to get your astronauts into space, you won't get there.
The only ones cheering this development are Obama and America-hating Free Trader Commies. They are the only people who hate America having any sort of technological know-how and ability.
I can just imagine the government out-sourcing space travel to some private company: It will be some Soros-run company in Commie China with Indian scientists working dirt-cheap....but with a Globalist American CEO whose salary is twice as much as what we spent for the NASA program
Wonder why the more we out-source our government...the more our taxes are raised
So free market solutions work for putting humans into space but don't work in getting me between Tampa and Orlando ??? (forced high speed rail)