Feb 01 2010
Our Dream Is Dead
I have no idea who is talking inside the current administration regarding technical matters, but whoever they are they are pretty damn dumb. The global warming charade is probably the best known march of the ignorant, but it is not the only example of people trying to make decisions about things they have no business making.
Now it seems someone in the White House thinks we can just buy a manned spacecraft off the lot:
NASA’s grand plan to return to the moon, built on President George W. Bush’s vision of an ambitious new chapter in space exploration, is about to vanish with hardly a whimper.
…
Obama’s budget, according to a background briefing by an administration official on Sunday, will call for spending $6 billion over five years to develop a commercial spacecraft that could taxi astronauts into low Earth orbit. Going commercial with a human crew would represent a dramatic change in the way NASA does business. Instead of NASA owning the spacecraft and overseeing every nut and bolt of its design and construction, a private company would design and build the spacecraft with NASA looking over its shoulder.
Or we can design special fairy dust and fly like Tinker Bell.
What is even more stunning is that this is not even a cost savings to the public (nor shovel ready). The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (which is now under contract and being built) was originally budgeted for $3.9 billion. I seriously doubt it will stay there, but it has been through requirements definition and preliminary design. Why start over and throw tens of thousands of people out of work  in the process?
And I am only talking the jobs associated with Orion and Ares (the launch vehicle). There are more jobs to be lost this year when the Space Shuttles are retired:
The administration estimates the new funding for the commercial program would create up to 1,700 jobs, which could help offset the expected loss of 7,000 jobs in Florida when the space shuttle is retired next year.
Typical Obamanomics math, they don’t even get the lost jobs numbers right. The ‘reasoning’ for this change used in the article is mind boggling naive:
“The Defense Department began using commercial rockets a long time ago to launch priceless national security satellites, that our troops’ lives depend on. If the Pentagon can trust private industry with this responsibility, we think NASA can, too,” Gedmark said.
Rockets are not crew vehicles (no air, food, waste disposal, pressure, etc). The US Air Force DOES NOT trust private industry to its ‘manned vehicles’. Neither does the Navy  for its ships or the Army for its tanks and guns. They specify every nut and bolt. I am just wondering who is so gullible (outside the news media) to buy these 3rd grade excuses to do dumb things?
Is there some special reason (or corporate buddy) driving the White House to throw away all the work (and money) to date, and go with a solution 33% more expensive? This smells of funneling money at great taxpayer expense to me.
Or is this just more childish Bush Derangement Syndrome at work? That seems likely.
I should have known better. Anyone who thinks they can re-architect the dynamic, innovative and enormous health care system of this nation is clearly delusional and suffering from a demigod complex. Since they are pretending to be doctors and nurses, I guess pretending to be astronauts, engineers and entrepreneurs is not a surprise (since none of them have a clue what those careers are all about either).
All I know was I was hoping mankind would return to the stars in my lifetime, as we did with the Apollo mission and John F Kennedy’s dream of visiting the Moon (I was 9 when humans first stepped on the Moon, I was 12 when the missions stopped). Obama the job killer is also Obama the dream killer. Heaven help us these next 3 years.
“NASA’s grand plan to return to the moon, built on President George W. Bush’s vision of an ambitious new chapter in space exploration, is about to vanish with hardly a whimper.”
When I read those words I knew why the project is being canceled. The liberals are determined that nothing that George Bush envisioned will ever be accomplished. Nothing! Not returning to the moon, not winning HIS war on terror, trying terrorists in the proper venue. Nothing.
Canceling this also puts thousands of people out of work in Texas and Florida. Not to mention letting other countries acquire the technology to pass America.
My only hope is that Senators with jobs at stake will put pressure on the Obama administration.
I have never feared more for our future than I do with this man in power.
This is probably the work of the science czar Holdren.
He killed loans for nuclear plants before Obama brought them back last week.
I suspect that Congress will have a lot to say about this…although it should be remembered that much of the space program funding is spent in states that don’t worship the Obama cult.
And the budget is all about getting Obama reelected.
On the other hand, look at the bright side.
We can dust off the REAL Orion plans!
It’s official, NASA will not lead us back to the moon and beyond…
And Barack Obama will fight those who oppose him on it: The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is canceling NASA’s current space shuttle replacement- and lunar exploration-plan and is prepared to fight any congressional effort to save it, t…
Space is extremely important especially as it comes to our national security.
I firmly believe this administration is set on destroying American exceptionalism. There are too many instances to prove the point, this being one of them, imho.
This administration is in a narcissistic rage with ever-diminishing covert hostility towards America, hellbent on revenge, imho.
AJ,
I want to see us return to space.
There seems to be some intense debate about how to get there. Rand Simberg seems adamantly opposed to the current NASA plans and was glad to see them canceled.
I am confused.
Whatever else NASA has been doing for the last 40 years it does not seem like its getting us to the Moon or Mars. It seems like its become an overly cautious bureaucracy where manned flight is concerned.
I am also suspicious that private industry will have a hard time getting outside LEO.
How do you think we should proceed?
Aj I have been waiting for you to chime in on this.
The question is what do we do to stop this? What is depressing is the bi partisan cheering of this. I see a lot of fiscal conservatives and Liberatarins in the GOP going AMEN to what Obama is doing.
SO this demands a very big bi partisan response. How do we organized? We better do it fast
Let’s put this all in context. So NASA will ‘kinda oversee’ the Low orbit program while keeping an eye on the climate change.
Hmmm…. so the Coast Guard should retire their cutters and we can farm out the defense of the US Coast to the fellows out there shrimping and fishing while they ‘kinda’ keep an eye on the coast.
The Navy could retire most of their ships and just let the guys running those big freighters keep and eye out on what’s going on in the oceans of the world.
Obama (alias Steve Dunham) is but a deceitful idiot that scammed the country into voting him into office. The country will not be safe or get back on the right path until he is out of office. A strong resurgence of Repubs to replace Dims will help out a lot this November.
The reason Obama and his people ain’t interested in space projects is because none of his Carpetbagger advisors are smart enough to know how to syphon money out of the space program. They understand “Roads Projects,” Welfare Projects, Bailouts, etc. but haven’t a clue how to get in on the inside of the space program and drain it dry. Now if it could be labeled a “shovel ready” project, they might think it was plunderable and support it.
[…] Our Dream is Dead – AJ StrataSenator Richard Shelby (R-AL) calls White House proposal for NASA “Death March“ […]
I am still waiting for the jet pack that was going to be the mode of transportation in the 21st century. It was either Kennedy or Walt Disney, but someone promised me. Please don’t tell me those projects have been scrapped too!!
Anyway the population has been successfully dumbed down to even have the ability to dream of the stars and beyond. Most people today don’t even know we sent a man to the moon.
I really feel the need to inject some reality into this discussion. Constellation was never going to return us to the Moon. Its flaws were simply too great, and the funding was never going to be there to correct them. I would much rather follow a plan that has a chance to succeed than one that won’t.
Ares I was a mistake; I’m glad it’s dead. Orion is uninspired; we can do much better. And let’s face it: if you were to clean sheet design a heavy lift vehicle, you wouldn’t come up with Ares V or SDLV, would you now? We have to live with our choice of HLV for a long time; let’s do it right, or better yet, let the commercial guys do it right for us and at one-tenth the cost.
Read back on the writing of those who did Apollo; if they didn’t have the deadline of the end of 1969 for a manned landing, they would have chosen a much different design, with an emphasis on infrastructure. Just like the vision Bolden outlined today.
The vision isn’t dead. If anything, it has a better chance today because we’re facing reality. Let’s take heart and work on the infrastructure to make our shared dreams come true.
I’ll leave you with a C.S. Lewis quote:
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
As I’ve thought about this today, especially in light of the announced $1.6 Trillion deficit; the amount required to keep these programs going is almost trivial in light of what is being spent. So why is it being cut, really?
Obama is cutting it just so he can have something big to point to and say “Hey look, I cut that!” He’s scared he’ll be vulnerable politically if he starts slashing the military, and he won’t touch any of his social programs – so NASA makes a big juicy target. He’ll budget $21 billion to hand out to broken states like California and Illinois that don’t have the political will to fix their own budgets, but not a penny for NASA.
That’s what’s so sad – NASA is being destroyed just for an attempt to make a point that no one will believe and that will change nothing in the overall budgetary situation. NASA is being sent in front of the firing squad for nothing.
In the end, it will just have been one more way to destoy this country’s future.
Maybe, just maybe, the next President will unleash DARPA. I worked for them for three years…and if there is one organization in the Federal bureaucracy that can pull off the impossible, it’s them.
Don’t forget, the left is very anti-science, with their faith in global warming as evidence.
Every liberal I ever talk to wants to cut space exploration so that we can feed our people back on earth!
Never mind the technological breakthroughs. Never mind the technology that filters back down to the public.
Little minds stuck in a welfare state mentality where work and discovery are made meaningless by being on the dole.
The problem isn’t only that he has canceled the moon program but he has also canceled the replacement for the space shuttle. We have absolutely no manned space flight capacity at all now once the shuttle is retired.
Once the Shuttle is retired ( I think there are only a few more flights left, something like 3 or 4), only Russia and China will have a manned space flight capability.
jimg,
Actually, you did not like Constellation, but it could have made it to the Moon, especially if they dumped Ares.
It’s obvious this blog is not interested in understanding the truth behind NASA’s situation or the fact that Constellation would have never put men on the Moon. This is simply a right wing echo chamber interested in nothing but reinforcing anti-Obama sentiments — otherwise you would have published my previous comments.
Your organization is anti-patriotic and anti-democratic. Our nation was founded on the principle of free speech and open debate; you, sirs, practice neither.
“It’s obvious this blog is not interested in understanding the truth behind NASA’s situation or the fact that Constellation would have never put men on the Moon.”
On what facts do you base that “truth”? I hear you spouting the talking point, but see no backup with any facts. Do you have any?
Once upon a time when I did taxes for a living, one of my clients talked about space and the landing on the moon. As he pointed out, Americans have always been explorers and pioneers and yet we hadn’t followed up by pushing on to the next step. Now it seems that it will be left to others, leaving us behind.
What folly.