My entire family has worked at NASA/JSC here in Houston at one time or another since its inception...The only one left is my sister, who is a senior project manager for a contractor out there...She’s fairly safe, as she has shifted to strictly Station support issues...Both my parents have retired from there, and frackly, due to the change in attitude and direction of NASA and its “New Space” initiatives could care less...
I heard just recentl;y that the Falcon program was going to combine the two flights into one, and rendevous AND dock to the station this fall...They are still hashing out the details, and its not much of a leap or risk to accomplish both goals considering the situation...they are even ramping up the manned missions for the Falcon launch system as well...Apparently when thebean counters figure out it might be cheaper to get the commercial system up and working a little sooner, the technical and safety aspects of the issue are certainly still at the forefront of the effort...Nothing will be skimpt or cut from the safety aspect of crew and station operations...that we can be assured of...
When the Russian partners boosted the cost of a ride up on the Soyuz’s from 20 million to 50 million, that to me was a clear message that they are not willing to cut us a break whatsoever, since we’ve been carrying their water and crap up to the station for such a long time...
I’m not saying any of this because of our close association to America’s Manned Spaceflight program fro all these years, and its benefit to the Houston Clear Lake areas economy...the benefit to the nation and the world for that matter is paramount...
And the one guy we can absolutely hang this demise on is Barack Hussien Obama, President Bush may have pushed the button to steer NASA into a new direction, but he didn’t pull the rug out from underneath the whole damn program like this guy did...
And what is ironic, yet funny as hell...There are a TON of former employees of this industry that voted for that shlup...I would literally laugh in their faces now if that ever came to public knowledge...I have zero sympathy for them...
I told my sister to make sure she turns out the lights before they lock the doors to that facility...
This collective denial that things are going to continue is a farce...We might get lucky if they can keepthe Falcon project properly motivated to continue its work on thier program...Otherwise, its lights out for America’s dominance in space, in ALL aspects...
And there will not be any reclamation of that dominance that I can see...
When did they do that? Was that carried in the Houston papers? I seem to have missed it on CBS News (</sarc>).