Free Republic

The results of a 90-minute medical exam of President Barack Obama have been released. For the most part, the President is healthy "--has 20-20 vision, weighs 179 lbs in his shoes and clothes, and requires little medication." There are, however, two caveats in the report released to the public. It seems that President Obama still hasn't been able to kick his cigarette habit, despite promising the First Lady he would do so, and indeed, telling the media that he had done so, "but still had an occasional cigarette, without specifying how many." Even more intriguing and perhaps even unsettling is...

NASA administrator Charles Bolden attempted to defend the new Obama space policy before a hearing of the Science and Space Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Part of the Obama space policy that even some of the critics like is the commercialization of space flight. The idea is that NASA would buy seats on commercial space taxis that would take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The idea is that commercial competition among nascent space companies will lower the cost of space travel, saving NASA money. Not coincidentally using American space taxi services would wean NASA away from dependence on the Russians for space travel, which will start totally as soon as the space shuttle is retired later this year or early the next....

The Economist has a story upon the lofty theme of how Americans can still get to the Moon before the Chinese even if President Obama succeeds in canceling the Constellation return to the Moon program

A recent story in the Orlando Sentinel suggests that the Obama administration intends NASA to become as much a tool of international diplomacy as it is an agency that furthers science, commerce, and the national security needs of the US. Specifically NASA is supposed to start an outreach to the Muslim world.

NASA, in response to President Obama's proposal to cancel the Constellation space exploration program, may be moving to wind down Constellation related work and cancel some contracts. NASA may be in violation of federal law by doing so.

The Obama space proposal, which seeks to enable a commercial space industry for transportation to and from low Earth orbit while it cancels space exploration beyond LEO, has sparked a kind of civil war among conservatives. Some conservatives hate the proposal because of the retreat from the high frontier and even go so far as to cast doubt on the commercial space aspects. Other conservatives like the commercial space part of the Obama policy and tend to gloss over the cancellation of space exploration or even denigrate the Constellation program as "unworkable" or "unsustainable."

NASA administrator Charles Bolden recently sat down with the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle and opened his mind about what he thought whatever exploration plan that replaced Constellation would send NASA and the United States.

Opposition to President Obama's bid to cancel the Constellation return to the Moon program has started to manifest itself among purveyors of popular culture. It has even inspired its first work of literature.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden met with the media in advanced of the flight of the space shuttle Endeavour STS 130, now planned for Monday morning. Bolden offered some astonishing admissions about the Obama space plan.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden traveled to the Kennedy Space Center for the occasion of the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour STS 130. But he was also in Florida to confront the consequences of the new Obama administration space policy.

Having faced pointed and even hostile questioning about its new space policy in the Senate and now in the House, the Obama administration and NASA officials are starting to realize that perhaps the rollout of that policy was flawed.

Is the expected Obama space policy, which cancels the space exploration program started by President George W. Bush and begins a commercial space flight initiative actually a "conservative" policy?

Jeff Foust, who blogs for Space Politics, whose subject matter is self explanatory, asks a very pertinent question about President Obama's plans for NASA, which include cancelling the space exploration program. Who, in Congress, will actually support it?

Press reports suggest that the Obama administration intends to scrap the space exploration program started six years ago by President George W. Bush. NASA will be tasked with devising alternatives based on options from the Augustine Report.

The aerospace industry journal Space News is citing unnamed Obama administration sources in describing decisions that have been taken by President Obama concerning the future of NASA and human space exploration. The news is not good from the point of view of space enthusiasts.

It seems that the Iranian Football Federation "accidentally" sent their Israeli counterparts a Happy New Year greeting. The director of foreign relations for the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic is taking it back, calling it a "mistake."

Tim Jones is an Anglican Priest who in a sermon to the congregation at St Lawrence's church in York suggested that there is an exception to the Eight Commandment, the one that says Thou Shalt Not Steal. Apparently, according to Father Tim, as his flock calls him, it is alright to steal if one is poor, if one is stealing from a large, corporate owned store, and if one only engages in shoplifting. The idea is that God, for whom Father Tim Jones is evidently speaking for, so loves his