Bush's space plan eyes new generation (developing rockets)

Boston GLobe ^ | January 21, 2004 | Bryan Bender

[hopespringseternal]

Prior to the rollout of the president’s vision, NASA had hoped to accelerate the development of its planned Orbital Space Plane, which was supposed to be a replacement for the space shuttle. The goal of that program was to have a vehicle by 2008 that would be capable of transporting crews to and from the International Space Station. The idea was to eliminate the need for the shuttle or Russian-built Soyuz rockets to service the space station.

Idiot reporter. OSP, like CEV, is a payload not a launcher. Now it could be that part of the program was a new launcher or man-rating an existing launcher, but that has been very scrupulously left unsaid.

Rather disquieting since you are talking about a very significant sum either way, and the final cost and capability will have a huge impact on the space program, probably more than the CEV decision itself.

[theFIRMbss]

>People need to realize we are losing high tech jobs, and losing the initiative to improve our tech industries.

Look at how many
high-tech companies are now
mostly overseas.

A major space push
will just empower these firms,
and solidify

their business structure.
Whatever boost we get, they --
Asia -- will get more...

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

And that new form of energy sources can be spun-off to power our automobiles to get us off the foreign oil and generating electricity other than nuclear.

[Centurion2000]

Space exploration should be about 1/4 of the Defense Budget .... what better way for long term motivation of a nation than to have a frontier

It also allows people that do not deal with civilization well a way out to explore.

[cwb]

Exactly. The fact that these liberals are so blinded by their hatred to realize the potential energy bonanza here, is ignorant. Heck...just getting to Mars and beyond is going to require some innovative thinkers who "may" develop some new technologes. But, no...they see oil in everything Bush does.

[TomSmedley]

"It's been almost 30 years since we built a new launch system," said MIT's Crawley. "There is an enormous difference between the skills the nation had during Apollo and now. You have working at NASA now . . . a generation that has never built a rocket."

Well, the Russian program, short on cash and long on brilliance, appears to be forging doggedly ahead.

[itsahoot]

The Luddites need to ask themselves how long this Nation will retain it's sovereignty once we no longer field a credible ICBM fleet

More time than we have if we don't protect our sovereign borders.

[Dead Dog]

Bush has put that ball in Congresses court.

[larryjohnson]

Give Moon,Mars Missions. to Military

[hoosierham]

Let's see... WE spent (spend) BILLIONS and BILLIONS and TRILLIONS (voice of Carl Sagan....)and we get to see dead rocks and pretty stars, and a very few people get super thrill rides. SOME of them die . More people die every day in car wrecks than died in space.

This excellent choice in how our money was spent results in a nation that can't produce enough energy, jobs, or technolgy for everyday life.

While we fooled around with gov't controlled boondogles the Japaneses took over the ELECTRONICS industry, and made huge inroads into TRANSPORTATION, i.e. cars,trucks and construction machinery.

You want to talk WELFARE ? what is the space program except corporate welfare ? The gov't had no business supporting either type of welfare.The defense aspect would be a valid reason for missile/anti-missile research.

[hoosierham]

I calculated (roughly) that ONE trillion would be enough to put solar cell roofs on all the homes in the U.S. and produce enough electricity to power those homes and a big chunk of businesses.Figured $25,000 per installation times 40 million homes. Of course some are not suitable for this but then I didn't estimate how many equivalent roofs are above business.

Surely economy of scale could reduce manufacturing costs and it would employ lots of construction workers besides reducing burning of hydrocarbon fuels.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting.

[BenLurkin]

"1/4" of the defense budget? There are places where a person could put investment money and do really well: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=atk

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Heading for the Stars, and Wondering if China Might Reach Them First