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- kelstock, on 10/06/2008, -2/+86If the USA pulls out of Iraq 2 months early ($9B/month) they could more than double NASA's budget. Source: Congressional Budget Office.
I mean for ***** sake, switch around the current policy on war, sex and NASA:
Sex: Enough money to keep things safe.
NASA: Preemptive involvement before critical to the country's survival
War: Abstinence - kelstock, on 10/06/2008, -2/+78That's some perspective - "A fellow congressman recently suggested naming the first new lunar base after Neil Armstrong. Mr. Feeney recalled responding, “What makes you think the Chinese are going to give us permission to name their base after one of our astronauts?”"
- duckley, on 10/06/2008, -3/+53If McCain gets elected, he'll piss off the Russians so bad, we'll have astronauts only on the ground.
- chocula78, on 10/06/2008, -2/+45I honestly don't think the American space program will recover from this gap. The only hope we have is for private companies, like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, to really take off (no pun intended).
- Berkana, on 10/06/2008, -6/+41Truly shameful. What about military payloads? Will those be given to the Russians to handle as well?
- hydroplane, on 10/06/2008, -2/+35You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense each year, trillions of dollars, correct? Instead -- just play with this -- if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world -- and it would pay for it many times over, not one human being excluded -- we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever in peace. ~Bill Hicks
- airencracken, on 10/07/2008, -1/+25This is a disgusting turn of events. How pathetic that our own space program is so underfunded and ill-equipped. Years of cutting back budgets and the public's general disinterest in this important venture have brought us to this point.
I'm appalled. - inactive, on 10/07/2008, -3/+25In Soviet Russia, Space Programs hitch rides with you!
- chocula78, on 10/06/2008, -1/+21There hasn't been a military payload on the shuttle since the late 90's. They are launched on unmanned rockets now. Besides, if a military bird needed servicing, would they use the very public shuttle program to service it?
They bring military birds down if they break because the risk of the tech falling into enemy hands is to great. - bongfarmer, on 10/07/2008, -0/+13Thats ok, they can still see the moon from there. Are you a space elitist?
- Zervaman, on 10/07/2008, -1/+12The US Government needs to make space a priority more now than ever. Russia has new cash from natural resources, and China's space program is playing catch-up, and if the US wants to continue to be the king of the hill, then we need more funding!
Space is essential for the future of the human race! And I want to be around to see a man (or woman) take the first step on Martian soil! - RogerStrong, on 10/07/2008, -0/+10Popular history tells us that Britain looted India. But in reality, Britain *lost* money on India, and all her possessions. What was happening, was the East India Company was looting the British treasury.with the help of a few paid politicians.
This is what Haliburton is doing. You know - charge the government two million dollars to rebuild a school, then pay a local contractor ten thousand to do it. Entire cargo pallettes of money - billions of dollars - missing. Vice President Cheney is the former CEO of Haliburton, and still owns considerable stock in it. Cheney's war has made him very rich indeed. - infodoc1, on 10/07/2008, -0/+9"You guys are the scary boogeyman we've been warning our citizens about... but is it cool if our astronauts catch a ride with your?"
- SilverBlade2k, on 10/07/2008, -0/+9Wow, even our Space Program is beginning to be out-sourced to a cheaper/more efficient country..
- MaximusIGN, on 10/07/2008, -2/+11>>>The Bush administration chose to give up the nation’s own access to space for five years and move to the next phase of space travel.
Seriously. Is there ANYTHING that Bush hasn't ***** up beyond repair? I can't think of a single thing in these last 8 years that he's done that people can say "At least he did...". Can anyone think of one? - kakwakas, on 10/07/2008, -0/+8Hopefully this will help improve US-RU relations. Kind of ironic that the two space race competitors end up like this, though.
- bassman12593, on 10/07/2008, -0/+82010: Odyssey Two, anybody?
- wishninja, on 10/06/2008, -3/+10The rush to launch the shuttle for military use caused the Challenger explosion. There hasn't been a military mission since then. Guess the Military just makes spares. Satellites are now robust, redundant, and disposable.
- MScrip, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6> "our own space program is so underfunded and ill-equipped."
But we're killing people in Iraq! And our soldiers are getting killed too! I'm glad our government uses money effectively. - rickjames2929, on 10/07/2008, -2/+8For Mother Russia! I won't be surprised if Russia's economy will be betters than America's in the next 20 years.
- kurtwinter, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6Some poor Americans need a ride to space... This will also look good on the cover of Pravda.
- topgigmedia, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6Yep! They will then be referred to as, "astro-NOTS!" Okay, that was stupid, sorry.
- bubblz, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6This is just dumb, embarrassing, and indicative of poor planning. We need to put more money and people towards science & technology, not war and bailouts.
- locojones, on 10/07/2008, -0/+5This is what happens when a country is run by a group whose ideology is diametrically opposed to intellectualism. As part of the demonization of science and reason, it's no surprise that things like Hubble upkeep and shuttle maintenance and development get the axe.
- ElGubrush, on 10/07/2008, -0/+5At that point we may want to consider strapping them into giant oil-drilling machines and calling them terranauts.
- jenshik, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4I see the Youtube->Digg migration has begun.
- ElGubrush, on 10/07/2008, -1/+5Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day
Give every man a fish and they will fight over the fish - anonymiau, on 10/07/2008, -2/+6Oh my god. Even in this article you have some goddamn moron trying to smear the Russians. Is this Nelson of Florida aware that what he's saying about Putin can easily be said about Bush too, if you're not a biased idiot still mentally stuck in the cold war? In fact, many would actually argue that it's the duty of the Russians to intervene when the Georgians are committing genocide and that Americans should be more concerned with their own little genocides in Afghanistan and Iraq (and soon, Iran)
It's Mr.Nelson's ilk that keep up the need for military spending bigger than all other countries on earth...combined, and ensures there's little money left for NASA. This man should seriously look at himself in a mirror. - docbob84, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4If Palin becomes president, it'll be ok. You can see space from the ground, so it's just like being there right?
- Amazetbm, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4The Air Force has their own launch pads.
- brainclog, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4We are so broke even the goddamn astronauts are car pooling!? I'm moving to Sweden!
- docbob84, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3@RogerStrong: Makes you wonder how long the war would last if we could somehow negate his earnings. Maybe the government gets "ownership" of his shares and he gets whatever they were worth the day the war began? I know it's illegal and unconstitutional, I'd just like to see his face if we sprung that on him.
- kingUssop, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3What's sad is we make such a big deal out of it. We can't let scientists from our country work with another country? Give me a break, they're not going to pull guns on each other.
- docbob84, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3Yeah, but we haven't flown any manned missions past LEO in about 38 years ourselves. Our technology hasn't exactly stagnated, but I'd say they're closer to 10 years "behind" us than 45. If they decided they wanted to show us up, could the Chinese speed things up and make it there before us? I really don't know, I haven't researched their space program much. But I wouldn't be shocked if someone said it was true.
- Flytrap, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3Yeah... I always wondered about that. Just how much peace and stability would economic and social upliftment buy. I am betting a whole lot more that all the weapons in the world. ... and we could even generate a whole lot of wealth in our own countries if we treat our trading partners as "trading partners" rather than as charity cases.
- starmanjones, on 10/07/2008, -2/+5i'm not so critical. it might be good for the world if the US and russia are dependent on each other. the russians make good rockets. nasa should get out of the launch business and pay private companies like spacex and virgin galactic. i know it feels weird but the baby has to grow up. we need to support the business of space or a big part of the justification for funding nasa all those years is forgotten. nasa should move on to the next big challenge that nobody else can do. thats what makes nasa great.
- inactive, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3Does Palin even know the earth revolves around the sun?
- doublefelix, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3Don't forget that one of the informal roles and functions of the Vice President is being Chairman of the Board of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It would be nice to have someone who actually believed in science to be in that role.
- mycoplasma, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3I tried to. All I could come up with was "At least he won the majority of the votes in the 2000 election", but then I realized he didn't even manage to do that.
This administration has been defined by failures ever since the beginning. - BossKey, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3Great movie, despite the outdated politics.
- UncommonSoap, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2From superpower to ultramoocher. Its a shame how intelligent yet stupid we humans are.
- cube5, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2Woo capitalism at its finest!
next we will be outsourcing our government to china, because we are so lazy!
/sarcasm - lilhelper, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2My friends dad is working on the ORION project, he says NASA would be more than happy to hand off some of the projects to private companies.
- Railz, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2Not so much anti-NASA as he is anti-Shuttle. I love the shuttle, and it was a fine piece of engineering, but it is time NASA moved on. He stated he wants them to move towards development of real, capable ways of space travel.
- RogerStrong, on 10/07/2008, -1/+3There's doesn't appear to be any risk of that happenning.
The Chinese are essentially repeating the American Gemini program. Having done a first spacewalk, they're where the Gemini program was with Gemini IV, just over 43 years ago.
Except that Gemini flew every 7 or 8 weeks, and the Chinese are flying every two or three years.
Their plans to land on the moon some time after 2020 are the "we'd like to", not the "we have approval and funding to" kind. - Railz, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2I heard your stock markets took a nice plunge. Good 'ol global economy.
- bluekangaroo, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2They never should have stopped building the Saturn V.
How about 700 billion for NASA? We could pay engineers to actually BUILD things. And I guarantee NASA would not use golden parachutes (too heavy). - inactive, on 10/07/2008, -1/+3With the state of our economy, I would be very surprised if we ever launch a man spacecraft after the space shuttle is retired. China will be on the moon for a decade before we even launch again into orbit.
- RogerStrong, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2One reason is that SpaceX and Virgin Galactic aren't lobbying in Washington (donating to congressional campaign funds) the way that Boeing and Lockheed Martin are. And those congressfolks control NASA's budget line item by line item.
But more than that, it's about jobs. The Shuttle's primary mission was to keep the standing army of Apollo technicians and manufacturers employed. Likewise, Constellation/Ares's primary mission is to keep the standing army of Shuttle technicians employed. Any plan that would result in mass layoffs would never be passed by Congress.
Ares V seems to be a good idea though. The kind of heavy lift needed for manned lunar missions doesn't have much commercial application yet. -
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