No second place - We must not lower our [space] horizons

Houston Chronicle ^ | July 20, 2011 | Editorial

[Cincinatus' Wife]

With the landing of the Atlantis shuttle only a few days away, reality is setting in: For the first time in more than 50 years, the United States of America will not have the capability of launching American astronauts into space.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Today, July 20, 2011, "celebrates" the 42 anniversary of Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon.

The last U.S. Shuttle mission was scheduled to land today at Kennedy Space Center (inappropriately on this anniversary of American's triumph) but that last landing has been pushed back to July 21, 2011.

[Jmouse007]

Tell it to the Marxist, communist, anti-American Obama. The man responsible for single handedly destroying NASA because the program does not redistribute the wealth to “his people”.

[count-your-change]

“Without the shuttle flying skies will darken, flowers will not bloom, the grass will not grow, and little children will never smile again.”

The Hustling Chronicle

[Wolfie]

Sure, why not? It’s not like we’re dead broke or anything.

[org.whodat]

Some of that is true, but incompetence in the workers and in the leadership of NASA brought us to the current state of affairs. We have spent billions and billions, what do we have, a damn space station, that does nothing.

[DrewsMum]

I think it has more to do w/not being seen as a threat. (weaponizing space)...

The one thing, fantasy or not, that stopped the commie soviets dead in their tracks...”Star Wars”, SDI....or weaponizing space, is curiously the ONLY gov’t bueacracy(sp) he’s been willing to cut....

Commies removing all obastacles....

Reagan would HATE Obama

[Jmouse007]

What you say is true.,. what happened to that giant wheel in space, the Pan Am space plane that was going to fly us there and the Alpha moon base and the Discovery ship to Jupiter or Mars? So sad we did not live up to the dream

[YankeeReb]

I'm torn about this, on the one hand the space program has brought great technological advancements. Computers, electronics, aeronautics just to name a few. The fact that the Russians , Chinese and Indians are moving ahead with space explorations is also troubling. OTOH we are in a financial crisis, so there are some things we can't expect the government to foot the bill for.

Personally since the money will be spent by the government anyway, I'd prefer to see it spent in space than on things like muslim outreach and lawsuits on behalf of the mexican government against states like Arizona, but I suppose that can't happen.

[Steely Tom]

When China sets up a moon base and claims the whole thing for itself, we’ll get serious about space again.

[varmintman]

I don't think most people know how critical getting to Mars is. NASA and the ESA have been covering up things which they should have been shouting to the rooftops about.

The most major internet resource for such material is:

http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Particularly interesting is the thing about the Hale crater:

http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2005/084/hale-civ-evidence.htm

I've checked that one out myself. The image as it sits on the ESA website shows rocks and sand only; but if you convert the image to grayscale, zoom two or three times, and fiddle with the contrast and brightness just a tiny bit, voila, tall buildings, absolutely rectangular in structure, and every sort of artificial construction:

Then again, moons and satellites are supposed to be made of green cheese and/or dirt and such, and not out of metallic strakes which reflect light all over creation as you see in the new color images of Phobos:

The implications of this stuff are staggering; the clear and obvious reality is that Mars was inhabited in past ages. Bork Obunga has told NASA that their main focus in life hence forth is to be assisting slammites with their self esteem issues. If China or some other nation were to get to Mars/Phobos while NASA was assisting slammites with their self esteem, then anything resembling a leadership position for the United States would die on that day and would never come back.

[Biggirl]

Heard yesterday on “The Osgood File” yesterday morning about a group of four private companies that are designing a new space ship, like a contest. Boeing is one, another company, Spacetex, is another. There are two other companies, but I just do not have the names for those two.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

NPR tries to put a “happy face” on it, and can’t: Questions Hang Over NASA's Post-Shuttle Future “The final space shuttle mission means that the 30-year-old shuttle program is about to enter the history books alongside the famous Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

And as the end of the shuttle era looms, NASA leaders say they're about to build a new vehicle, one that will let astronauts go exploring deep into space. But some experts doubt that plan will ever get off the ground.”…..

Detroit News: Michigan astronauts: U.S. lost in space …….. “Lousma and Worden join other astronauts including Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon 42 years ago Thursday, in saying Obama's cancellation of NASA's cornerstone development project, a new moon rocket program called Constellation, reveals a lack of vision from American political leadership.

Dr. Jerry Linenger, 56, who spent 132 days off the planet and survived a fire on Russian's space station Mir, sees an even greater risk to the American economy and its psyche.

"In 2034 we are going to wake up and see we have no capability. The only way we are going to create jobs is keeping the U.S. superior in technology," said Linenger, an Eastpointe native who lives near Traverse City.

"NASA is a magnet for brain power. Space is sexy. It is the greatest post-graduate program imaginable.”…..

Air&Space Magazine: Faded Flags on the Moon....... "Tomorrow, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will land back at its launch site, ending that program’s 30-year tenure as the centerpiece of America’s space program. That was not a lifetime ago, but a similar sense of loss is evident………

We discarded both a working transportation system and a strategic path forward in space in exchange for promises of commercial space travel to LEO and dreams of human missions to an asteroid (with nebulous rationale and timetable). Wishing new capabilities into existence without a clear step-by-step path forward would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. The administration came to a fork in the road, pondered the direction our national space program could go, and chose a path with no objective or productive program architecture that America could embrace to stay on top of her game.

….. America is left with no discernible space program while the Moon above us no longer flies a visible U.S. flag. How ironic.”

Austin American-Statesman: Cernan: We must remain committed to human spaceflight “As NASA brings the space shuttle program to a close later this month with a successful conclusion of the flight of Atlantis, many are wondering whether the United States is abdicating its leadership role in human space flight. I have expressed my own deep concern, along with some of my colleagues, over the past year about that real possibility. However, if one reads the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, now law, which Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison co-authored and Congress overwhelmingly adopted last year, there might be an alternative path forward, but only if that law is adhered to and implemented by the Obama administration……………….” [Cernan, a retired Navy captain, commanded the Apollo 17, the last manned flight to the moon, in 1972.]

Alabama News: NASA heavy-lift rocket supporters wonder why their project isn't moving ………..[Mike] Griffin said he has heard the rumors that NASA is moving some of the $1.8 billion appropriation to other purposes.

"I suspect that SLS [Space Launch System] funds are being used to meet other funding needs throughout the agency whenever such needs might be construed to be related in some way to the needs of SLS," Griffin said, "whether or not the SLS program manager would consider such needs to be his highest priority for the use of the money."

[Charles] Bolden [NASA Administrator]and others in the administration insist they are committed to the new law. The administrator points out that he has designated Marshall Space Flight Center as the lead agency on the new rocket. All of the funding will be managed from Huntsville, he told Brooks last week.

[Sen] Hutchison's [TX] remarks also confirm that several lawmakers have seen NASA's design for the new rocket, and a preliminary version of the operational details for building it has reportedly gone to Congress.

[President] Obama himself referred to the future of spaceflight Friday in his conversation with astronauts from the last space shuttle now visiting the space station.

The last shuttle flight "ushers in an exciting new era to push the frontiers of space exploration and human spaceflight," the president said.

In Huntsville, NASA and its contractors are still waiting for the "exciting new era" to start.”

[central_va]

After we gut Defense, NASA, National Park System, NIH, and Highway System budgets, then we will get to “social” spending. I say no NASA then no welfare.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thanks for bogging down this thread with high resolution, crack-pot pictures and nutty blither.

[varmintman]

Not worth responding to.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Heard yesterday on “The Osgood File” yesterday morning about a group of four private companies that are designing a new space ship, like a contest

Obama is giving NASA money to Elon Musk of SpaceX (Musk held huge inaugural ball for Obama along with the Huffington Post)-- crony capitalism? Who knows when these wished for "ships" will make it to LEO (LOW Earth orbit) where the ISS orbits -- they are not designed to go any further into space. In the meantime the U.S. has NO way into space. We've been cut off at the knees.

Once all our infrastructure has been dismantled, the funds will be cut off for "commercial" space because the will have "taken too long." End! Fini! Finito! China will take the moon, inhabit it, mine it for energy resources to fuel space ships, control Cis-Lunar Space, drive technology and their economy and we will go to them with our begging bowl.

There is a contest (been going on for years and the participant list has grown) called the XPrize. It's to land a robot on the moon and there are rules. But after all the years since it was proposed (7-8?) they are still looking around for private funding.

[Biggirl]

http://www.westwoodone.com/pg/jsp/osgood/transcript.jsp?pid=32399

[org.whodat]

This low earth orbit is nothing more than BS, it is the same old crap, where someone says I am thinking out the box, when in fact they are the box, a box of rocks. Low earth orbit is not space flight. Solving the problem of reentry is where NASA has been a miserable failure, but hell let’s go take some pictures of clouds, that is what they are good at.

[DB]

This is what happens when you pour ever increasing resources into “social justice”. A moving target that can never be satisfied. That turns productive people into parasites.

The bottom line is socialism is a tried and true formula that turns empires into dust over time. Is there a single case in all of history where a country that drifts into socialism ever changes course and rights itself before collapse? I'm not aware of any.

The land of the free and brave is now cruel joke. Can-do is now where's mine. Where our masters won't let you even legally buy a 100 watt incandescent light bulb...

[Biggirl]

You know when it is summertime when it gets hot and posters get cranky.