President Obama declared he is "100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future" as he outlined plans for federal spending to bring more private companies into space exploration. America has never had a space policy more visionary or more friendly to private enterprise. Everyone must be aware that the shutdown of the space-shuttle program, with nothing to replace it immediately, was a Bush administration policy laid down more than six years ago. President Obama's new plan gives us redundant capabilities to get people to orbit, and competition among the multiple providers will drive down prices not just for NASA but for everyone. We want to leap into the future, not continue on the same path as before, Obama said. The plan includes an extra 6 billion for Nasa over five years; $3.1 billion for "vigorous new technology development" that could result in a pioneering heavy-lift rocket to take astronauts to Mars. I think he sees NASA as a problem he inherited from George W. Bush, and in that, he is right for once. What we're looking for is not to continue on the same path, but to leap into the future. Remember that when government does the right thing, it doesn’t matter whether it’s done for the wrong reason. Whatever the motivations behind it, this is a much more visionary space policy than we’ve ever had before. President Barack Obama is strongly committed to our future in space."
NASA's budget will increase by $6 billion dollars. The money will be spent on programs which should help move use forward in space exploration. The Constellation project was a huge waste of money and resources spent on a failed design. It was rightfully canceled.
ReplyDeleteI am opposed to privatization but the fact is private companies have always been involved in building and servicing the various components of the space program.
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While, I do like the space program, it's a nice luxury item, it would seem that under our current financial situation, that perhaps it's not OUR best allocation of limited resources, at this point in time.
ReplyDeleteThe space program isn't a luxury. It has returned more economic benefit, jobs and leadership in the world than any other single program. We have computers, the internet, weather prediction, increased farm yields, early warning for tsunami's and hurricanes all because of it. And that's just a tiny list of the benefits.
ReplyDeleteWe are leaders in innovation and science. The space program is a central source of both and it's benefits are far reaching down the years and provide the basis for economic leadership. You do realize that NASA gets less than 1% of the Federal Budget do you? Plus it returns a dollar for every penny spent, unlike other government entities.
President Obama is actually increasing NASA's budget. The cancellation of Constellation only frees up money within NASA to be invested in other things -- namely, financing and producing a Heavy Lift Vehicle on a quicker timescale than before.
ReplyDeletePresident O'bama's plan gets us nowhere fast. Why delay in deciding what kind of heavy lifter to build? More than likely NASA will present a plan in 2015 and Obama if still president will cancel it saying we have no money. Why string us along? The Democrats have never liked manned space exploration of the moon because there are no voters up there. If there were you can be sure Democrats would want to be there.
ReplyDeleteObama didn't "kill" America's human space flight capability. That started with Bush giving NASA an unfunded mandate that required NASA to kill the Shuttle program to free up budget to build their new system. It was also killed by the former NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, who insisted that NASA pursue his pet hyper-expensive rockets, regardless of whether or not they could actually be made to fly in a timely and economical fashion.
ReplyDeleteDon't blame Obama for America being out of the space game for the next decade. That was in the cards for a long time. The fact that you are all just finding out about it now makes me wonder how closely you follow the news regarding NASA.
Go ahead and Google "NASA The Gap" to find out how far back we knew about this.
A key point, to me, occurred when Obama said this wasn’t his decision alone.... but a consensus “panel” of experts(scientists) helped convince him of the new goals for NASA. "NASA will spend $6 billion [over the next five years] to encourage private companies to build their own spaceships to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. I like this, you want to go to the moon? Then build your own damm spaceship. We're sort of broke at the moment and have far more important things to do.
ReplyDeleteBush wanted to return to the moon because someone told him there was oil. He kept it hushed up because he thought he was sitting on a fortune.
I agree with the President on this. We have already been to the moon, why keep spending hundreds of billions to go back. Let's move on to bigger and better accomplishments. Project Constellation was a loser program from its incarnation.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog #3.
ReplyDeleteObama is a fucking disgrace and has done nothing but run around apologizing for the country he is ashamed of. The man doesn't even understand the office that he holds. He will be voted out!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou claim a lot, but how much do you know about what Obama really does? and how much trouble Bush really caused? When Clinton left office, the USA had a buzzing economy, a stable budget with dropping debts and a space flight program, that was at least knowing what to do the next year. Clinton even managed to absorb the New Economy crash back then. Bush managed to bring all your internationally allies up against the USA, while making friends with the Chinese tyrants. And now, Obama is getting the democratic countries back, and China faster becomes back to the old state of hostility as before Bush.
ReplyDeleteObama is doing a damn great job as president, despite the bad situation. Despite having a president as predecessor, who was in all stats a perfect loser.