Anotheryahoo, on 21 July 2011 - 06:01 PM, said:
Great Job way to go NASA! Dont want to spin this off into politics but lets remember president Bush never funded Constellation nor did the republican congress. Obama stepped into a pile of poo from all the stupid wars(4 trillion and counting) and to a space program Constellation that wasnt funded only a PR gimmick.
Whenever anyone goes political, the whole thread gets infected rapidly.
I certainly understand that NASA's state at the moment is largely political, but I have to point out a couple things.
Constellation was funded. It's not now.
PR gimmicks don't have boilerplates built, successful pad abort tests, and sucessfully test flown Ares 1 boosters (1st stage test flight).
Constellation was real, and we had the right NASA Administrator to see it through.
I don't want to hear about the poo Obama stepped into, espcially in light of the cespool he created since.
He cancelled Constellation, then he vascillated, and finally re-instated Orion, and heavy lift, and we'll still have private contractors working several designs of manned LEO craft, and boosters. And still, thousands are losing jobs, many next week, and many more after Orbiter processing is concluded.
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I think Nasa 's low orbit approach with private companies will be terrific. Instead having just 1 way to get to low earth orbit/ISS we will have many....Boeing,Lockheed,ULA,Sierra nevada,Space X,Blue Origin. This will free up Nasa and funds to build a heavy lifter and go to Mars and perhaps Europa.
I think its workable, but we won't have a bunch of different options. I'd expect one or possibly two. And, if anyone thinks that these designs will simply be thrown up and flown, including the boosters, without NASA help and NASA approval on every single aspect of their checkout, testing, man certification and preparation, they're living an illusion.
Over these next 5-10 years, NASA is going to be a busy place. Understaffed, but busy.
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Also look they just got into orbit around Vesta, Hubble just found another moon around Pluto etc. Nasa isnt standing still the republicans just want to kill it like they do a bunch of programs. Lets face it space exploration is considered another social program. Only way they will get interested is when China starts going crazy up there. Republicans love those military programs and that wont be long.
Let's stop the political nonsense.
NASA isn't standing still, you're right. But how you can say space exploration is another social program and that anyone wants to CUT IT is astounding.It's already been cut down by the people who want to do it, and even they'll never sustain that, as has been evidenced by Orion and heavy lift's return. We're in for more changes fter next year.
Let's keep this thing on track.