Putting NASA's Budget in Perspective
NASA's Share of Total Federal Government Expenditures Since 1958
Posted on 08/06/2003 1:38:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CAPE CANAVERAL - If you want to experience the real United States, visit John F. Kennedy Space Center as a tourist. I did so on Saturday. KSC is not about making war. It is about space exploration. As a high school junior, I was at the Cape on Feb. 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into space for the first time on Friendship 7, and I was here in October 1998, when, at age 77, Glenn went up the second time on the shuttle Discovery.
Between those two flights, I saw eight other liftoffs at the site, all as a journalist. Although the view from the press area is spectacular, I realize now that it gave me only a glimpse of what goes into launching a craft into space and how that process exemplifies NASA's brilliance and the character and aspirations of our nation.
Located on Florida's Space Coast on the Atlantic Ocean, less than an hour's drive from Orlando, KSC spreads over 14,000 acres of land, swamp and waterways. I was one of thousands of tourists who spent two days touring the 30-year-old Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and restricted area sites, which we reached by bus. The center's story and that of NASA are presented through tours of the Apollo/Saturn V Center, Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry and the International Space Station Center.
The facility attracts more than 2-million Americans and foreign guests a year. As you drive into the Visitor Complex, you immediately see the full-sized replica of the space shuttle Explorer, and as you enter it, you get the feeling of traveling through space. Everything about it looks real: the flight deck, where the astronauts fly the orbiter during launch and landings; the middeck, where shuttle crews work on experiments, sleep, eat and use the toilet; the cargo bay, where satellites, the laboratory and the space station modules grab a ride into orbit. You suddenly learn that the shuttle is a high-tech flying truck. Along with the orbiter, you see the other components necessary for launching the orbiter: the huge, orange external fuel tank and the two rocket boosters.
The Launch Status Center is next to Explorer. Here, visitors get real-time, live briefings on NASA launch and space flight operations. According to NASA, "During space shuttle missions, live views from orbit are shown on monitors and guests can watch the astronauts working in space."
My favorite place at the main complex is the Rocket Garden. Here, you can walk within a few feet of the actual fuel-powered Redstone, Atlas and Titan rockets that first put Americans in space. Interestingly, except for the giant Apollo Saturn 1B rocket, which NASA built from scratch, all the crafts were originally designed for the military. NASA adapted them for peaceful use. I spent more than an hour in the garden, studying the rockets, their noses pointing into the clouds.
A great experience awaits you in the Dr. Kurt H. Debus Conference Facility. Here, you see the original Mission Control Room consoles that monitored and tracked the flights of Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and Glenn. Complete with lights, signals and recorded voices, a launch is recreated.
The IMAX experience is a must. NASA comments that "astronauts themselves say watching an IMAX film is the next best thing to actually being in space. They should know - because astronauts shoot virtually all the space footage you'll see at the center." I watched one of the 3-D films on a five-story screen. Special effects and a wall of perfect sound transported me to the International Space Station with the crews.
I had lunch with an astronaut. And I, like others, visited the Space Mirror, a project of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation. This is a moving experience. Dedicated in 1991, the monument occupies six acres, and contains the names of U.S. astronauts who have died in the line of duty. Those lost recently on Columbia will be added soon.
The bus ride to the restricted areas is memorable. From a safe distance, visitors see, among other sites, the KSC Headquarters, the Operations and Checkout Building, the Space Station Processing Facility, the Launch Control Center, Launch Pads 39A and 39B, where all systems go for launch. We went inside the Apollo/Saturn V Center and walked beneath the complete restored Saturn V moon rocket. Displayed horizontally, it is longer than a U.S. football field.
Any citizen who has not spent at least one day at Kennedy Space Center should do so. This place is real America. Its presence should not be taken for granted. Even as workers piece together Columbia, astronauts are training for the Endeavour mission. "They're eager to get back into space," an official said. "They know the risks."
I was once flying near Canaveral in a small plane flown by my old software co's president, and he radioed somebody for special permission to fly over a restricted zone. Next think ya know, we're flying directly over the landing strip used for the shuttle (just as if we were the shuttle getting ready to land). That was fun. (Not sure they'd let that happen again, since 9/11.)
The Saturn assembly building was the most awesome thing I ever saw. You see lots of tall buildings from the outside but this was as open inside as it was tall, talk about getting dizzy.
This was during a trip we took to Disney World. We landed at what was then the old McCoy AFB being used as Orlandos airport. We actually had to use steel rollout stairs to the tarmac and walk to the terminal. It was all orange groves, trees, water and gators between Orlando and Disney and the Cape. Those days are gone for good.
Interesting retrospective. These two quotes struck me in particular -- KSC, at least in its glory days, was very much about making war. The race to the Moon bewteen us and the Soviets wasn't undertaken to find out the composition of the Moon's surface. It was a proxy battle in the Cold War, one in which its own participants strongly felt the warlike atmosphere and imperative (in response to a question once to Frank Borman, "Did you feel like an explorer?", he replied, "No, I felt like a warrior!".) The unusual octagonal shape of the S-IB first stage (the one Maxwell alludes to above) is caused by the strapping together of eight Redstone boosters by von Braun and the Operation Paperclip crowd at Huntsville. So even this "pure exploration" spaceship has martial roots.
What's more, if we are to eve invigorate the federal government space program again, it's war or its threat that will provide the motivator. And, I contend, there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. If we neglect this aspect of space, the next faces grinning at us from the Moon will be Chinese.
"I think that the Second Gulf War highlighted, on the one hand, the dependence of the United States on space-based systems, which China's People's Liberation Army cannot help but notice and note," Cheng said. "Space assets gave U.S. forces a significant edge, and that is something that the Chinese have noticed."
Cheng said the DoD report correctly observes that the Chinese are showing an interest in the topic of physical attack against satellites.
"It would be dangerous and foolhardy, in my opinion, to either ignore such reports, or worse to pooh-pooh them. Given the degree of American reliance on satellite systems, it would behoove us to consider the prospect of attack against our space-based infrastructure from all potential sources, and to explore and, where possible, undertake countermeasures against such possibilities," Cheng told SPACE.com.
As the DoD report notes, Cheng said, "the Chinese have highlighted space systems as targets for preemption. That should only make us pay more attention to improving the survivability of the American space force."***
No, I don't think they would. I live nearby and recently went up there for a showing of space related paintings by local artists since my wife had one on display. They confiscated my little 2-inch Swiss Army knife and would not return it when we left. Sigh.
BTW, night launches are the best, though rare. Also, you don't really have to be all that close to get a good view. If you're in the area, the local newspaper, Florida Today, prints the next launch times. And they have a website, flatoday.com.
Putting NASA's Budget in Perspective
NASA's Share of Total Federal Government Expenditures Since 1958
One small caveat...
..Until recently, folks could explore the Visitors Center for free!
Now, they charge, I think, 22 dollars per pop.
Regards, Eric
Yes, but that money must first be taken from an even greater number of American families.
During the cold war, NASA was relevant. Now it isn't. It is just another nest of bureaucrats feasting on the American pocketbook. Manned space has lost all direction save as a means to spend money.
Crippled by political correctness and bureaucratic stagnation, it will take NASA ten times as long and 100 times as much money as is truly needed to do anything.
NASA may become relevant again if private industry (Rutan, Armadillo) manages to eventually build a decent launcher AND a politician comes along who can construct a convincing argument for doing anything in space.
But I think Mars and other goals will have to wait until private industry can form the backbone of getting to and operating in low earth orbit.
They were....for years.
Now they charge up to 30$......
Today's NASA I agree 100% but project Mercury through Apollo and the early shuttle missions were wonderful. They put a man on the moon with less computer than sits on your desktop now. They were true pioneers and America had a pioneering spirit back then, the last time I saw that. Yes it was political too, trying to outdo the Soviets. We thought that we would have colonies on the Moon and had a manned mission to Mars by now. The problem is NASA stopped moving forward. There is nothing there now. I wasn't so cynical back then and saw every Astronaut as a hero and every kid wanted to be one. Sadly it's not so today.
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