Yesterday, the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Discovery
were awoken by the voice of Captain Kirk, praising the works and wonders accomplished by the shuttle over its thirty years of service to our nation. Right now, Discovery is finishing up its 39th mission-- bringing a high-tech new robot to the space station that will help with both experiments and general upkeep and maintenance up there. Tomorrow, Discovery will land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and will then eventually make its way to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The American Space Shuttle program
has officially ended, and we have no more scheduled plans for men to reach up for the stars or to touch the moon. We will continue our operations on the International Space Station, with our astronauts and tests hitching rides with our Russian counterparts for future missions.
President Bush ordered the retirement of the shuttles, and hoped to use NASA's minds and government funds to establish the Constellation Program in its wake. President Bush had an oft-overlooked fondness for NASA and space exploration, and through Constellation sought to reduce the costs of further exploration, to establish an extended human presence on the Moon, and to develop and test new technologies that could put us on a sustainable path for long-term space exploration. One year ago, President Obama deemed that the program was too expensive and lacked innovation, and subsequently ended the program. He has no major interest in space, only mentioning possible funding of the Orion-class shuttles for a potential mission to Mars in the future. Subsequently, after Discovery is shipped off to the Air and Space Museum,
massive layoffs will be completed at NASA and the aerospace contractors working for the government. Many of the brightest engineering and scientific minds in the world will suddenly find themselves unemployed.
However, there is no great loss in this. President Obama's lack of interest in the exploration of the great frontier is unsurprising (he does not seem to be one for gazing up in the stars with great awe and wonder, wanting to know more of the secrets they hold), and his lack of leadership is disappointing. But his inaction and the strained budget of the government is paving the way for a new age of American space exploration. For the past decade, the commercial space industry has been picking up steam, including some successful launches. Led by companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, these private enterprises hold the key to our competitiveness in space. With a sudden influx of the world's premier engineers and scientists now looking for work, the minds and expertise that the private industry has been lacking are now available to help.
More importantly, we can start to get excited about space again-- an excitement that can draw more people to study and fund aerospace projects and to become part of something great. It is worth noting that the Old World's discovery and exploration of New World, and its first settlements, were largely due to excited explorers funded by private interests, who served as patrons for exploration both for the economic benefits and the glory that comes with being a part of helping move the human race forward in understanding of some of the universe's great mysteries. For millennia we have gazed up at the stars, the Moon, and our neighboring planets with curiosity and wonder. We have sought new ways to understand and learn more of them, both for the practical benefits and the sake of understanding. As President Reagan fittingly said, it is a way to touch the face of God. America is a nation of innovators; it is for this that I do not fear the fact that China has plans to be on the Moon within a decade while we do not. We have led the way in the exploration of space, and we have the greatest minds in the world to continue this great project. With these great minds now free from the lamentable bureaucracy and managerial incompetence that has plagued NASA in recent years, our innovators and explorers and curious people will continue to seek how to go where Man has never gone before, and to once more touch the face of God.
The bus driver in the white house is completely clueless on this issue. Fact - the bus driver wanted the executive director of NASA to reach out to Muslims. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
You are asking the bus driver who has a degree in ideologly to think out of the box. Not gonna happen.
Well, hopefully, someone will finally get fired up and enable all this boldly-going and face-touching space stuff in the next few years. Good luck to him when he does.
I seriously doubt the "market" will conquer space. Sure, there are private initiatives, but they pale in comparison to state-run programs. The bottom line is...the bottom line. Space must pay for itself, and so far it hasn't. In the near future, if you want an ambitious space program it will have to be at taxpayer expense (which I'm all for, actually). When have corporations ever been good at basic science?
The US hasn't been in the science business for all that long. Somehow people managed to invent all kinds of things without government subsidy before.
But what is left of NASA ought to fold into the Air Force, which has a research division that does the same work. They are redundant and already connected; the Air Force even has a shuttle program. Most of the NASA scientists and engineers and even subcontractors will shift over to the Air Force program.
If we are going to demand that government shrink and become more efficient, we are all going to have to let go of some dream programs, including a (semi-)civilian space program. We cannot afford separate civilian and military programs and we must have the military side of it.
You guys are overreacting.
Goodbye Discovery:(
Eh, the Space Shuttle (aka Cosmic Bus) is an old, overly-complicated system in need of retirement. The sad thing is that Orion, which was supposed to replace the shuttle and eventually take us to Mars, has been scuttled by Obama. I guess he thinks we are better off spending that money on deadbeats, union thugs and 'too big to fail' corporations.
Unfortunately, he's WRONG. The vast array of spinoffs and multipliers we gain through the space program makes it one of the very best Federal 'investments' out there. But the Dims have taken a dislike to manned space programs since Carter. They actually have met a Federal program they don't like! You know why? Because this one actually works and makes America look good, and at the same time it doesn't put any money in their pockets or the pockets of their mascot groups.