The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS

[American Patriot]

We're done.

There will NOT be any more space flights. It's all over.

NASA will be closed down... 324,000 jobs, gone.

The Shuttle program is almost done. Those people will have to look elsewhere.

Ares rockets. GONE. Done.

The White House... POLICY is bullshit.

NOW, we're going to have to "count on the Russians".

We've played RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF COMMUNISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vector7]

Yep...

US, China to exchange military space cooperation as the White House Council directs agencies to remove China as top priority for spies while China and Russia shake hands in outer space.

Unless we get off this path we may soon find ourselves in unrecoverable territory.

[American Patriot]

This is serious.

The White House Budget is due to be released... tomorrow or tonight or Monday.

Basically, they have cut ALL the funding from the return to the Moon program.

This was something that Bush wanted to push.

This is no longer a "let's save money" thing - this is vengeance against the Right. This shit has to stop, before there is a shitstorm.

[Malsua]

Get your own and get out. The ship is going down. There is no more us, as a country.

Disabuse yourself of any notion that it will ever return to what it was.

With a leftist at the wheel, eventually something will break. Don't be near a pressure point when it does.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yep. Was reading about this in complete disgust.

You can't voluntarily cede the high ground and expect to stay on top.

[American Patriot]

I set my retirement date for Feb 2012.

My Daughter and Son-in-Law think I should name the boat "Armageddon".

[Malsua]

Naw, call "I'magoneonit"

[American Patriot]

lol

I was actually surprised they caught the date, and thought of the name. lol

[vector7]

NASA To Focus On Muslim Outreach

Last Updated: Wed, 02/17/2010 - 3:30pm



A few weeks after killing the U.S.A.’s world-famous moon-mission program, President Obama has ordered the space agency that operates it to focus on reaching out to Muslim countries.

Indeed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) mission will shift from space exploration to Muslim diplomacy, as per the commander-in-chief’s orders.

When Obama announced earlier this month that he would slash NASA’s $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, he didn’t mention where some of the resources would be directed.

The president only said the moon program (Constellation) is behind schedule, over budget and overall less important than other space investments. NASA’s attempts to pursue its moon goals were inadequate and took funding away from other important programs, including robotic space exploration, science and earth observations, Obama claimed.

NASA’s new secret Muslim outreach mission was conveniently omitted though the head of the agency finally revealed it this week. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden disclosed that Obama wants him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as part of the administration’s efforts to make the space agency a tool of international diplomacy.

Bolden referred to the new mission as an effort to reach out to “non-traditional partners,” especially countries that don’t have an established space program. Of special focus is Indonesia because it’s the world’s largest Muslim nation, Bolden explained. No word yet on how much money the U.S. government will invest in the Muslim outreach.

In the meantime, a congressional firestorm has brewed over Obama’s plans to nix the moon-mission program, according to news reports. Dozens of federal lawmakers have sent letters to NASA’s chief insisting that the Constellation moon program remain intact. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, blasted Obama for cutting the moon program since it will likely cause the U.S. to fall behind countries like China and Russia in space exploration.

[vector7]

Obama cuts US space program, orders NASA to work with Muslim countries

Posted on February 17, 2010 by creeping

Who says terrorism doesn’t work?

Obama’s Budget Cuts NASA’s Moon Project
In his budget proposal, President Barack Obama is doing away with the $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon.

On its Web site, the White House Budget Office says the program to send astronauts to the moon is behind schedule, over budget and overall less important than other space investments.

A more important space investment is of course, pandering to Muslim countries.

NASA plans more outreach to Muslim countries
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.

“In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.

Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping them conduct science missions. He mentioned new opportunities with Indonesia, including an educational program that examines global climate change.

“We really like Indonesia because the State Department, the Department of Education [and] other agencies in the U.S. are reaching out to Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world. We would love to establish partners there,” Bolden said.

Once again Obama puts the Muslim world ahead of Americans. hat tip @dominionpundit

Coincidentally, Obama (aka Barry Soetoro, aka Jakarta street kid) went to school in Indonesia.

[vector7]

February 18, 2010
Obama's Stone Age

By Pamela Geller



Another radical step for Obama, another giant step backward for mankind.

Obama is ending a NASA project to return astronauts to the moon. The White House's proposed budget ends funding for the Constellation program, which would have put a man on the moon again by 2020. CBS News reported: "On its Web site, the White House Budget Office says the program to send astronauts to the moon is behind schedule, over budget and overall less important than other space investments."

Less important than what?

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden gave the answer Tuesday, when he revealed that Obama had asked him to "find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries."

"We really like Indonesia," explained Bolden, "because the State Department, the Department of Education [and] other agencies in the U.S. are reaching out to Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world. We would love to establish partners there."

Trillions are being spent, and no one is sure what exactly we are getting for it. The global warming junk science hoax is one of the big winners of government largess, despite the daily revelations that reinforce that it is all a hoax, the largest fraud in human history.

Despite the increasing evidence and public awareness of this hoax, Barack Obama is working full speed ahead in snowbound Washington, D.C. with his plan to redistribute the West's wealth to third-world nations in an attempt to halt this chimerical "global warming."

Billions for graft and corruption and fraud, but nothing for the future discovery and the progress of mankind.

Meanwhile, the advancement of true science, as represented by NASA's space program, is being shuttered -- and now NASA itself is being redirected to serve Muslim countries.

The observer cannot help survey current events with a mix of shock and awe and terror. The government continues to place an unfathomable debt on the already broken back of a middle-class nation, a debt so immense on its face that it is impossible to pay back.

And for what?

American leadership, elected by the people but no longer for the people, has given us over to our enemies under the clever cover of "internationalism." While Obama seeks America's nuclear disarmament, our enemies are building whole nuclear weapons programs.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently announced that Iran is now a "nuclear state," and the mullahs said that they are going to start building ten new nuclear plants. And Obama in response threatens more sanctions, when the existing sanctions are doing nothing to stop or even slow down the Iranians. Even in bizarro-world, does that make any sense? And even if we have nukes to spare, why take such a weakling posture in such a brutal world?

All this while we watch Iran's seventh-century savages, adhering to a bloodthirsty, totalitarian ideology, roll out what even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now admits is a nuclear weapons program. And they do so while threatening to wipe Israel off the map.

Meanwhile, we intend to spend trillions on foreign aid to third-world nations that are led by cruel despots and are no better off despite the billions we have already sent. And nations that received nary a cent but embraced economic freedom (though not political freedom), like China, have taken giant leaps forward.

Have we learned nothing? Are we incapable of advancing a different policy instead of trillions for more of the same policy? Are we not humane? Perhaps exporting the idea of political freedom would do more for oppressed peoples than paying off their dictators?

We ought to heal ourselves before vainly attempting to heal the world.

The left in America has stalled growth, innovation, productivity, and the protection of individual rights at the expense of whatever political fraud they were selling. Big government has been encroaching on our lives for decades now, and with Obama as president, the bottom is falling out. We must act to halt the rapid deterioration, because of government taxation and regulation, of the conditions in which free men produce, invent, and prosper.

Is America irretrievably broken?

Perhaps.

Perhaps the whole damn thing has to come crashing down about our heads for there to begin a return of the real America.

35 Comments on "Obama's Stone Age"

[American Patriot]

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

John F. Kennedy -1962 speech given at Rice University in Houston, Texas. America's reaffirmation to our commitment to land men on the moon before the end of the 1960s.

We are in the 21st Century now. Obviously there is no reason to go to the Moon NOW.

Or into space.

Or to defend our position from space.

Or worry about little things like rogue asteroids.

Or, who knows, perhaps hostile alien life forms. Naw. Nothing like THAT out there.

Why bother to go to Mars, the Moon. Why bother to look up any more?

We should shut down ALL the programs to look into space, shut down Missile Defense. We need to shut down high flying ships of any sort. We need to quit launching satellites!

We can save a LOT of money now.

[vector7]

Estimates: 23,000 Job Losses from Kennedy Space Center Closing


The end of shuttle launches will cost Brevard County $90 million in annual tourism dollars and $5.6 million in annual sales and resort tax collections, estimated Rob Varley, executive director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism. State Rep. Ritch Workman, founder of the Florida Space Caucus, denounced "this horrible president's budget."

Posted: 3:41 pm EST February 26, 2010Updated: 6:15 pm EST February 26, 2010

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- NASA’s budget crisis could be even worse than Brevard County imagined.

There are new estimates that as many as 23,000 jobs will be lost on the Space Coast when the shuttle fleet retires now that NASA will not continue its Ares rocket program.A year from now, Brevard County could be looking at a 20 percent unemployment rate; that's one in five people searching for help wanted signs.

This is an enormous increase over previous estimates.Todd Angell spent Friday morning learning ways to better market himself to potential employers. The Kennedy Space Center technician is among thousands of people who could find themselves unemployed within the next year.“It's coming faster and now we know for sure,” Angell said.Since the President proposed scrapping plans to use the Ares rocket and Orion capsule to replace the shuttle, the estimates on how many people will be out of work at the Space Center have skyrocketed.

“You have to be more competitive and you're competing against your friends,” Angell said.Nine thousand people with space-related jobs could be out of work within a year; 14,000 more jobs in businesses like hotels and restaurants, with indirect ties to the space industry, could also be lost.Twenty-three thousand jobs, the equivalent of every man, woman and child in the cities of Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, plus 2,000 more, would all be out of work.

“It's going to be devastating,” said Reginald Carson, who worked in construction and hasn't found steady work for two years. “I've worked all my life and never found it hard to find a job. But it's next to impossible right now.”

Carson says the government should stop corporate outsourcing.

That’s ironic since the U.S. will be relying on Russians to get into space while putting tens of thousands of Americans out of work.

The unions are preparing for the biggest rally yet to try to save space jobs. Organizers expect 2,000 people to gather at Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville on Saturday at 3:00pm.

Copyright 2010 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[American Patriot]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/03/obama-nasa-mars-moon.html


Politics and commentary, coast to coast, from the Los Angeles Times


Houston? You have a problem. Obama sets space summit to change Bush's Moon plans. Mars maybe

March 8, 2010 | 2:26 am


Mark the calendar again for April 15. It's a Thursday.


In addition to your income taxes being due, President Obama has called a special space summit in the politically important swing state of Florida that day to change the fundamental direction of NASA in coming years because he believes in change. Bold change, in fact.


This Florida change probably has nothing to do with Obama's presidential predecessor being from Texas, a state that didn't vote for the Illinois Democrat when he ran against Hillary Clinton (51-47) and disliked him even more when he ran against John McCain (55-44).


While you were watching the Academy Awards' red carpet parade and "Avatar's" James Cameron not win an Oscar for his space-based, highest-grossing, movie-directing in the entire cinematic history of both Earth and Pandora, the White House announced the....



...April space summit on the president's new directions and the implications for the Sunshine state and the nation. Because what red-blooded American politician wants to appear opposed to exploration?


Now that the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus plan has in only one year's time stimulated the nation's unemployment rate from about 8% to a now steadily-unemployed rate of 9.7%; and since healthcare has helped heighten Washington's partisan tone despite overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress; and now here comes immigration reform to hopefully divide Republicans, the 44th president has decided to multi-task his free time with reform of space exploration.
It turns out nobody can describe an ordinary tax-day space summit quite like the galactically-inspired, solid-fuel-boostered, earthbound writers of the White House Press Office.
So here it is. 3-2-1:

After an independent review panel found that the previous program to return astronauts to the Moon was fundamentally un-executable, the President included an additional $6 billion for NASA in his FY2011 budget over the next five years. This funding will help us achieve our boldest aspirations in space.



The President’s ambitious new strategy pushes the frontiers of innovation to set NASA on a more dynamic, flexible, and sustainable trajectory that can propel us on a new journey of innovation and discovery.


The President and the NASA Administrator both believe that we have to be forward thinking and aggressive in our pursuit of new technologies to take us beyond low-Earth orbit. The President’s plan does this.

A foundational element of this new strategy is to invest in the development of a targeted set of inter-related technologies and capabilities that can help us travel from the Earth’s cradle to our nearby Solar System neighborhood in a more effective and affordable way, thus laying the foundation to support journeys to the Moon, asteroids, and eventually to Mars. (Editor's Note: See photo, not shown actual size.)

After years of underinvestment in new technology and unrealistic budgeting, the President’s plan will unveil an ambitious plan for NASA that sets the agency on a reinvigorated path of space exploration.

OK. "Boldest aspirations in space." "New journey of innovation and discovery." "Forward thinking." "Foundational element." "Targeted set of inter-related technologies and capabilities."


In English this translates to Obama's new budget would cancel for now the return of NASA astronauts to the moon to explore and possibly colonize. The ex-senator wants new space directions with emphasis on milking more years out of the International Space Station and developing technologies to go somewhere else maybe someday who knows.


And to accomplish that he's prepared over the next five years to spend an additional $6 billion.


To put that once-enormous sum in perspective, "Avatar" fans have already spent a third as much on movie tickets to watch blue creatures. Not to mention money the patrons dished out for overpriced popcorn and Twizzlers.


All of which makes this space reform seem less like bold aspirations and more like a cheap short subject.
-- Andrew Malcolm

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia May Raise Price of Soyuz Seats

February 10th, 2010

Price gouging or simple laws of supply and demand? The Soyuz will soon be the only ride in town to the International Space Station, and reportedly, Russia is considering raising the price per seat. NASA and Roskosmos have an agreement for six rides to the ISS in 2012 and 2013, at a rate of about $51 million dollars per US astronaut. "We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this," Roskomos head Anatoly Perminov was quoted by the Interfax news agency. "But after that? Excuse me, but the prices should be absolutely different then!"

The end of the shuttle program means NASA has to buy rides on the Soyuz. The total deal of $306 million (224 million euros) seems to be a pretty good deal for Roskomos. But they say in order to provide seats for the NASA astronauts, they'll have to quit their space tourism program, which charges only $35 million (28 million euros) per seat.

The $51 million includes training, equipment, medical checks, supplies, services for launch operations and support personnel to launch site, flight control operations, and rendezvous and docking services.

NASA says these services are "serving as a bridge between the Space Shuttle and the availability of a commercial vehicle. Until a commercial vehicle is available, continued access to Russian Crew launch, return, and rescue services is essential for planned ISS operations and utilization by all ISS partners."

[Ryan Ruck]

Obama Facing Uprising Over New NASA Strategy

March 11, 2010

U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to tamp down an uprising in politically vital Florida against a new strategy for NASA that has rankled space veterans and lawmakers and sparked fears of job losses.

Obama's decision to kill NASA's Constellation program to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon has prompted soul-searching on whether the United States is prepared to cede a pre-eminent space role to Russia and China.

"As with all great human achievements, our commitment to space must be renewed and encouraged or we will surely be surpassed by other nations who are presently challenging our leadership in space," Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. Congress from Florida wrote to Obama last week.

Obama's move for a greater private sector role in space launches -- as he seeks to keep ballooning federal deficits in check -- has generated fears of job losses among thousands of NASA employees who provide an important economic base in Florida, a state usually crucial in presidential elections.

Employees at major space complexes in Alabama and Texas are also worried.

It is making for a potentially explosive environment when Obama travels to the Cape Canaveral area on April 15 to host a space conference with top officials and leaders in the field.

"What reception will they get? Not good," said Keith Cowing, editor of nasawatch.com, a website that closely monitors the U.S. space agency. "It's a gutsy move. It's Daniel in the Lion's Den."

Obama, in his Feb. 1 budget proposal, planned to increase NASA's overall funding to $19 billion in 2011 with an emphasis on science and less spent on space exploration.

He would cancel the Constellation program's Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets, after $9 billion and five years of tests. Constellation is aimed at returning astronauts to the moon in the 2020s to clear the way for a Mars mission.

Instead, Obama would spend $6 billion a year for five years to support commercial spacecraft development and pursue new technologies to explore the solar system in what the White House called "a more effective and affordable way."

LARGER ISSUE

Various members of the far-flung U.S. space community have been troubled by the change, such as former NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who struggled to get more funding for Constellation from the previous administration of President George W. Bush and believes Obama should stick with it.

"There's a larger issue here," Griffin said. "Does the United States want to have a real space program? Do we actually think we can have a robust, exciting, world-leading space program by hiring private enterprise to furnish it?"

But John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said he believed it was time for the private sector to get more involved in space.

"There's no reason to think that the technical talent in the private sector, combined with a significant degree of NASA engagement, cannot come up with a good solution," he said.

The debate to some extent has riven the space community. Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, supports the change in direction while Harrison Schmitt, one of the last on the lunar surface, opposes it.

NASA already has contracts with Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences Corp to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX and other firms are developing spaceships that can carry passengers to orbit and back.

The shuttle system still has four more flights to get crews and hardware to the International Space Station before the craft are retired. After that, NASA will be without a heavy-lift capability for a period of time.

This means Americans would have to pay to ride on Russian rockets to get into orbit, a stark turn of events after the pivotal battle the United States and the Soviet Union fought to outdo each other in the space race.

To maintain a lift capability, Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson wants the administration to add one shuttle flight and develop the Ares rockets that are part of the Constellation program.

Ultimately, Nelson believes Obama needs to give the United States a goal for its space program and hopes it will be a mission to Mars.

[American Patriot]

Second biggest mistake of his political career. The first one was thinking he could pull the wool over the eyes of the American public with his crap about Hope and Change - and now trying to shut down the space program.

[vector7]

After shuttle, NASA to pay Russia $56M a seat for rocket rides

BY TODD HALVORSON
FLORIDA TODAY



The price the United States is paying Russia to launch American astronauts to the International Space Station just went up. Again. For the third time in four years.

With the U.S. shuttle fleet set to retire in September, NASA announced Tuesday that it signed a $335 million deal with the Russian Federal Space Agency to provide round trips to the station for six crew members.

That works out to almost $56 million per seat on Russian Soyuz space taxies, or about $5 million more than the $51 million NASA paid per seat in a similar deal in May 2009.

It's also up from $48 million per seat in 2007. And that deal included the delivery or removal of 5.6 tons of cargo.

Some observers say NASA was smart to lock in a price prior to shuttle fleet retirement.

As it stands, the venerable Soyuz will be the only spacecraft capable of ferrying astronauts on round trips to the outpost until U.S. companies develop commercial crew taxi services.

The Obama Administration's proposed 2011 budget cancels NASA's Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets -- would-be shuttle successors. Instead it directs NASA to invest $6 billion over five years in the development of commercial means to transport U.S. station crew members.

Russia now charges space tourists about $35 million for 10-day round trips to the outpost, which orbits about 220 miles above Earth.

The firm, fixed-price NASA contract modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all training and preparation for launch, crew rescue, and landing for astronauts who typically stay four to six months.

The deal locks in Soyuz seats in 2013 and 2014. Astronauts flying under the contract will be able to launch with 110 pounds of cargo and return 37 pounds to Earth. Each of the six astronauts also will be able to dispose of 66 pounds of trash.

Contact Halvorson at 639-0576 or thalvorson@floridatoday.com.

[American Patriot]

Lovell and Hayes - Apollo 13 fame are calling on ALL AMERICANS to lobby Congress to BLOCK the President's plan to shut down the space program.

If you have any interest in seeing the human race eventually arriving at the ability to travel space (as in Star Trek) then now is the time to speak out.

For those of you who feel it is wasted money, then your personal short-sightedness on this will become evident in another 50 years when the human race population hits about 8.5 billion.

While you might believe we "should be spending that wasted money on 'programs' for the people here" you will have missed the boat - and perhaps the "Ark" someday, when that errant asteroid finally hits us.

[American Patriot]

Listening to Obama.

he is 100% committed to the mission of NASA.