wired.com— The turmoil and political maneuvering over the future of NASA continues in the wake of the Obama administration's cancellation of the Constellation
Mar 5, 2010View in Crawl 4
Excerpt from the press release titled "Hutchison Introduces Bill to Close Gap in U.S. Spaceflight" (dated 3 March 2010) posted at <a class="user" href="http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&amp;ContentRecord_id=f8baaa8b-07fe-497b-88cb-b643d7590f7b" rel="nofollow">http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Pres ...</a> (commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=f8baaa8b-07fe-497b-88cb-b643d7590f7b):. . . "We must close the gap in U.S. human space flight or face the reality that we will be totally dependent on Russia for access to space until the next generation of space vehicle is developed," said Senator Hutchison. "If the space shuttle program is terminated, Russia and China will be the only nations in the world with the capability to launch humans into space. This is unacceptable." . . . "Not only are we turning our backs on 40 years of American space superiority, we are giving up vital national security and economic interests to other nations. This must not be an 'either or' proposition where we are forced to choose between continuing to fly the shuttle to service the station and maintain our independence in reaching space, or investing in the next generation of space vehicle. We can and must do both. By maintaining our independence from other nations in reaching space, the U.S. can fully realize the research potential of the space station as a national lab," Hutchison said. . . .
It's too late to "save" the shuttle and far too expensive. If we had a cohesive space plan over the past 8 years or so, things could have been very different. Instead Bush put political and religious affiliations ahead of scientific competence when selecting NASA's leadership, severely damaging the organization. Then, when the budget and debt problems, mostly of his own making reared he went for the Kennedy grand vision plan even though he had to know the funding wasn't possible. It was all about HIS legacy and the image of him giving the grand speech, it had nothing to do with really going to the moon or mars. Now we've wasted a ton of money on systems that we never really intended to use and as planned, the next guy in office has to take the hit for pulling the plug that should never have been plugged in.
Whatever amount is proposed, the real cost is most likely 2-3X as much.Standard operating procedure: Reduce the cost in order to obtain a commitment; reveal the real cost later and argue for more money because "so much has already been invested".
"I believe that this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."Not because it is easy, but because it is hard!
vroom101Mar 5, 2010
Excerpt from the press release titled "Hutchison Introduces Bill to Close Gap in U.S. Spaceflight" (dated 3 March 2010) posted at <a class="user" href="http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&amp;ContentRecord_id=f8baaa8b-07fe-497b-88cb-b643d7590f7b" rel="nofollow">http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Pres ...</a> (commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=f8baaa8b-07fe-497b-88cb-b643d7590f7b):. . . "We must close the gap in U.S. human space flight or face the reality that we will be totally dependent on Russia for access to space until the next generation of space vehicle is developed," said Senator Hutchison. "If the space shuttle program is terminated, Russia and China will be the only nations in the world with the capability to launch humans into space. This is unacceptable." . . . "Not only are we turning our backs on 40 years of American space superiority, we are giving up vital national security and economic interests to other nations. This must not be an 'either or' proposition where we are forced to choose between continuing to fly the shuttle to service the station and maintain our independence in reaching space, or investing in the next generation of space vehicle. We can and must do both. By maintaining our independence from other nations in reaching space, the U.S. can fully realize the research potential of the space station as a national lab," Hutchison said. . . .
apastafarianMar 5, 2010
It's too late to "save" the shuttle and far too expensive. If we had a cohesive space plan over the past 8 years or so, things could have been very different. Instead Bush put political and religious affiliations ahead of scientific competence when selecting NASA's leadership, severely damaging the organization. Then, when the budget and debt problems, mostly of his own making reared he went for the Kennedy grand vision plan even though he had to know the funding wasn't possible. It was all about HIS legacy and the image of him giving the grand speech, it had nothing to do with really going to the moon or mars. Now we've wasted a ton of money on systems that we never really intended to use and as planned, the next guy in office has to take the hit for pulling the plug that should never have been plugged in.
jqp123Mar 5, 2010
Whatever amount is proposed, the real cost is most likely 2-3X as much.Standard operating procedure: Reduce the cost in order to obtain a commitment; reveal the real cost later and argue for more money because "so much has already been invested".
Closed AccountMar 5, 2010
"I believe that this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."Not because it is easy, but because it is hard!
Closed AccountMar 5, 2010
Read the, "America Grounded" column in the April, Popular Mechanics magazine, for aformer shuttle astronaut's take on the NASA budget.
rignopolisMar 5, 2010
It's a useless law - other than for politicians to bash each other over the head with when they ignore it.
starmanjonesMar 6, 2010
what the hell does that mean?
rizzo2008Mar 7, 2010
Shuttle replacement program? Are you talking about Constellation because I'm fairly sure Obama killed that.