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Could be worse. Could be the people Obama chose. Now we need to hitch a ride into space from people the dems claim are our enemies.
The Constellation project could have been conceived as a parody of everything Republicans claim to hate about public projects: Bloated, slow, covered in miles of red tape, absurdly expensive and designed specifically to line the right pockets. It was a mercy killing. We're getting Son of Constellation in the from of SLS, which will come with a price tag of 1 cool billion a pop and a correspondingly low number of flights.
The boom we're seeing in private space enterprise can be attributed directly to SpaceX, Blue Origin etc. coming out of NASA's shadow. Right now, a private US company puts a payload in orbit every 3rd week or so, something entire countries have a hard time matching.
There was going to be a gap in manned capacity no matter what happened, that was inevitable with the GWB administration's decision to retire the Shuttle. (The right decision, btw. One of the few good calls to come from that administration.)
No that was Obama's solution. Quantity seldom equates to quality. Chinese dog food for example.
That said just dumping tons of cash isn't the answer either. I would need a super computer to list all the examples of that path failing.
Haiti
Afghanistan
The F-35
The Ford Class Carrier
War on drugs
NASA isn't just a ride into space. It delivers cutting edge technology, the kind of stuff that keeps the USA in the driver's seat. That is when we can secure our files and stop civilian contractors from selling it to china.
Sometimes a fresh set of eyes provides solutions.
The Constellation project could have been conceived as a parody of everything Republicans claim to hate about public projects: Bloated, slow, covered in miles of red tape, absurdly expensive and designed specifically to line the right pockets. It was a mercy killing. We're getting Son of Constellation in the from of SLS, which will come with a price tag of 1 cool billion a pop and a correspondingly low number of flights.
The boom we're seeing in private space enterprise can be attributed directly to SpaceX, Blue Origin etc. coming out of NASA's shadow. Right now, a private US company puts a payload in orbit every 3rd week or so, something entire countries have a hard time matching.
There was going to be a gap in manned capacity no matter what happened, that was inevitable with the GWB administration's decision to retire the Shuttle. (The right decision, btw. One of the few good calls to come from that administration.)
I agree to a point. 16 years later and hitching a ride to an orbit we achieved in just a short period of time under Kennedy in the 60's.
I agree to a point. 16 years later and hitching a ride to an orbit we achieved in just a short period of time under Kennedy in the 60's.
Yeah, well... NASA had gotten into an unhealthy codependent relationship with the Shuttle supply chain and the politicians weren't about to give up their pork, hence the Ares Frankenrockets. Had NASA started with a clean-slate design... Better yet, had NASA kept refining the Saturn and then gotten the hell out. A man can dream, right?
Incidentally, the last Shuttle flight was in 2011.
An administrator doesn't need to be an astronaut or a scientist.
Hospitals often are run by people that aren't medical doctors.
Hospitals do that for a good reason. Doctors are poor administrators, and they have to be reigned in by non doctors in order to keep hospitals above board. Doctors are clannish, and they’re loathe to discipline their own. Outsiders are needed to keep people in line.
NASA has no such fraternity. I’m not saying that a NASA administrator should be an astronaut, but geez, at least have some grasp of science. Is that too much to ask for?
NASA stopped being about science and began being political about 20 years ago. Why the sudden concern now?
Somewhere along the way NASA stopped being about space and gained new directives
* climate change
* re-inspire children to want to get into science and math
* expand our international relationships
* reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering
Could be worse. Could be the people Obama chose. Now we need to hitch a ride into space from people the dems claim are our enemies.
So let me get this straight....we have known that the shuttle program was going to be retired in 2011 or so due to a aging fleet yet you want to blame president Obama who only came into power 3 years before the retirement of the shuttles?
Why don't you blame Dubya & his Republican Congress who preferred to fund the wars in Iraq / Afghanistan in the previous 8 years instead?
Obama only had a majority in Congress for 2 years and besides Republicans don't believe in science anyways.
Bridenstine's background as an administrator is running the Tulsa Air and Space museum (I am not making this up), and running it badly. But, as befits someone popular with Trump, he managed to spend museum funds to benefit his won company.
Yup, just the guy we need to oversee 18.4 billion of our tax dollars.
Further, it was an E-2C, a AEW ("AWACS"). Now, I don't know the details about flying that kind of bird but I would imagine it is nothing to be sneezed at.
Further, it was an E-2C, a AEW ("AWACS"). Now, I don't know the details about flying that kind of bird but I would imagine it is nothing to be sneezed at.
I'm sure he's a fine pilot. Not sure how that translates to running NASA, though.
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