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Posted on 04/06/2010 4:44:51 PM PDT by onedoug
...In testimony on Capitol Hill, top NASA managers are walking a thin and carefully lawyered line as they prepare a White House-ordered shift to commercial human flights to orbit and long-term exploration-technology development in Fiscal 2011, while trying to obey a congressional directive that none of the funds appropriated in Fiscal 2010 be used “to cancel, terminate or significantly modify” Constellation contracts without the express approval of lawmakers.
Given NASA's relativley small footprint in the national budget overall, against it's ability over the years to draw generations of young people into career paths involving technology and the sciences, it seems absolutely incredible to me that Congress would let this slip through our fingers and rather draw our country ever further into a third world style backwater.
Space Program ping....
It is not "giving up dominance in human spaceflight" to end a bloated, horrifically expensive program and replace it with something that promises to dramatically reduce the cost of access. If we are "giving up dominance" to the Russians, that happened when the Bush administration decided to end Shuttle this year, back in 2004. Ares/Orion had little prospect of operations until 2017 or later, at a cost of billions per flight. This is one of the few things that the Obama administration has gotten sort of right.
As for Congress, hardly anyone there cares one way or the other. This is just a fight over pork in Huntsville, Houston and the Cape.
The article asserts otherwise.
The goal of Constellation is to eventually get us to Mars. Perhaps I'm a dreamer, but I believe that's a goal that defines us as human. And as it fires the imaginations of young people, how is that not worthy given our other budget priorities?
Plus, as looking ever skyward, we would be the better prepared to deal with the contingency of possibly being clobbered by a meteroric or cometary body in the not necessarily so distant future. They come hair-raisingly close more often than one might otherwise think.
It should be our primary national effort to explore and expand into outerspace. We should have already established our 51st state on the Moon by now. The survival of our human race could depend on establishing a foothold off of our planet. Given what we know of history, it is a certainty that there will be events that will END the human race on this Earth. It’s just a matter of time. We need to have the ability to get away from our planet when it becomes necessary.
Also, just imagine the resources and raw materials that are just waiting on all of those planets and moons within our Solar System that we could utilize. I’m sure there are many of the same valuable resources throughout the Solar System as there are on our planet. Outer space should be the ‘Wild West’ of this, or the next few generations, and we are going to sit on our hands and let someone else beat us to it. I’m sure if China had our space program, don’t think for a second they wouldn’t be doing this.
Have you taken a close look at the congressional ruling junta lately?
“This is madness! This is OBAMA!”
The ideal of individual freedom works best on frontier
societies where individuals make their mark on history.
In the rat warren megacities of today, socialism is
the prominant structure and is perhaps right for those
packed into living like that.
We need space, the moon, mars and someday beyond if
we are to survive as humans, especially as free humans.
I have only to look at that budget breakdown to know that
we pour more money down socialist rat holes than we ever
could spend on our exploration program.
My best t.
This bunch must be thrown out of office as soon as possible.
We must act NOW - email tonight, call and email tomorrow - this is the last chance we have of stopping this illegal bypassing of Congress by obama to shut down our Space Program
BEYOND shutting down our Space Program, obama had directed NASA to funnel the money to ‘predominantly Muslim countries” to teach and bring Muslims into the technologies of the space program - teach Muslims how to build rockets and rocket fuel. (How many more Irans? the ULTIMATE ‘redistribution of money” - and eventually,, power, if this is allowed.)
Where is the outrage?
Didn’t know this part of the equation? Shame on you. READ.
“(NASA) mission will shift from space exploration to Muslim diplomacy, as per the commander-in-chief’s orders.”
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/feb/nasa-focus-muslim-outreach
“Some 7,000 space industry workers will lose their jobs by the time the shuttle program ends, causing the loss of 14,000 public sector jobs and raising the unemployment rate to near 15 percent in Brevard.” (that will actually be about 36,000 out of work)
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2010/01/boeing-lays-off-36-workers.shtml
and in Houston, even a DEMOCRAT candidate is asking for impeachment:
Where is the outrage?
Obama, Narcissist in Chief, has the audacity to be going to the Kennedy Space Center on April 15th to tell them all just how wonderful his new policy is.
Where is the outrage?
Where is Congress - CONGRESS is legally charged with making decisions concerning NASA. Obama is by-passing them - illegally.
We MUST - and NOW - email/fax/call Congress and DEMAND they stop this outrage NOW?
(Anyone who doesn’t get outraged NOW and demand congress stop this - is aiding and abetting obama in sending our tax money to his Muslim friends to teach them how to build the mega weapons to use against u s- our children. He is not just about destroying America’s freedoms - he is about the Muslim take over of our country.
Where is the outrage???
NOW - call NOW. email NOW. FAX NOW. Or YOU are aiding and abetting obama.
The article is wrong. What the reporter probably means is that most congresspeople who have had anything to say about it have complained. But they're not going to have control over the budgets. And very few have weighed in.
The goal of Constellation is to eventually get us to Mars.
In theory. In practice, it was never likely to do that. And if it did it would be decades away. The new plan is much more likely to get us to Mars (and many other places) than Constellation ever was, and much sooner and more affordably.
you say “This is just a fight over pork in Huntsville, Houston and the Cape. “
So you’re okay with obama illegally bypassing Congress on this - and funneling the money from NASA to ‘predominantly Muslim countries”?
The money IS gong to be spent. Get it?
this is obama’s unltimate ‘redistribution of our money”.
People, we have to watch what he is doing with his left hand while he’s busy waving his right hand around in front of our faces. (and remember, with Muslims, the left hand does the truly dirty work,)
“(NASA) mission will shift from space exploration to Muslim diplomacy, as per the commander-in-chief’s orders.”
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/feb/nasa-focus-muslim-outreach
“Some 7,000 space industry workers will lose their jobs by the time the shuttle program ends, causing the loss of 14,000 public sector jobs and raising the unemployment rate to near 15 percent in Brevard.” (that will actually be about 36,000 out of work)
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2010/01/boeing-lays-off-36-workers.shtml
and in Houston, even a DEMOCRAT candidate is asking for impeachment:
This is out only shot to stop this - email tonight, call and email tomorrow. Demand Congress take back their legal responsibility and do the right thing.
Or start learning the Koran
you post: “I have only to look at that budget breakdown to know that we pour more money down socialist rat holes than we ever could spend on our exploration program”
Exactly right.
Only ONE HALF OF ONE CENT per dollar goes to the Space Program
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html
If we have benefitted from all that from NASA -
Any guess at what the ‘spin offs’ will be if that money goes to “predominantly Muslim countries instead?”
That's not happening. There is no money in the new budget for "Muslim countries."
The money IS gong to be spent. Get it?
If course it is, this year. The issue is the new budget for next year. There's no way to prevent the Constellation money from being wasted on a dead-end program this year.
“(NASA) mission will shift from space exploration to Muslim diplomacy, as per the commander-in-chief’s orders.”
This is nutty. There is no "shift from space exploration" at all, let alone one to Muslim countries. There is just an outreach to some Muslim countries to see if they want to cooperate on space. I'm not thrilled with that, and it's kind of pointless, but there is no current proposal to send them money from the exploration budget.
“Some 7,000 space industry workers will lose their jobs by the time the shuttle program ends, causing the loss of 14,000 public sector jobs and raising the unemployment rate to near 15 percent in Brevard.” (that will actually be about 36,000 out of work)
That's a shame, but it was a Bush decision to end the Shuttle this year, made in 2004. It's stupid to cry about it now and blame Obama. They should have been trying to change the policy years ago, when there was still time, and the production lines hadn't been shut down for two years.
I’m not the one that wrote all those newspaper articles - why don’t you refute them?
...top NASA managers are walking a thin and carefully lawyered line as they prepare a White House-ordered shift to commercial human flights to orbit and long-term exploration-technology development in Fiscal 2011, while trying to obey a congressional directive that none of the funds appropriated in Fiscal 2010 be used "to cancel, terminate or significantly modify" Constellation contracts without the express approval of lawmakers.Thanks KevinDavis.
Thanks so much for pinging this guys. If I could only limit myself to involvement in science threads, I’d likely be much better off, probably from other’s points of view no less from my own.
Thanks again.
Why do you think the media is any more accurate in reporting on the space program (a highly technical endeavor) than it is on basic politics?
Well, let me add this, regarding the space program.
My brother was a radar/sonar/optics engineer in the Navy who switched into the budding space program before we even had astronauts.
He was on Grand Turk when John Glen was brought there following his historic trip around the world. He worked for the space program all over the planet.
I lived in Cocoa Beach during the Mercury 7 days - when Cocoa Beach was a sleepy little 2 highway place with one hotel. I met most of The Mercury 7.
One of my sons has worked for almost 30 years on the Shuttle program.
In other words, I talk with people who are/have been there for many years - I think they know what's going on as well as anyone else - indeed, some things that I haven't seen in the papers.
I don't get all my thoughts on our space program from the papers - but I don't find much in the paper accounts I listed that aren't factual.
Balls in your court.
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