Restart Shuttle --CRITICAL to USA SECURITY

Judging from the comments being made, it appears that Americans lack the ingenuity,vision and education for the U.S. to progress in the future and lose our leadership in the world. Who's to blame? We are for believing that government will take care of us instead of standing up for ourselves. Critical thinking is becoming a lost cause because of people's dependency upon the Liberal media to provide information valuable for progress and instead to boost a certain president's popularity and re-electability. We all need to start thinking for ourselves and decide just where and what we need to do to become the great nation we once were. If we don't then look at the condition of Europe,that's where we're heading to.

The above comment is on a NASAWatch  article .  It is right on target regarding the overall direction of the USA, and the space program.
If one looks at mercury, Gemini, , Apollo and shuttle programs they were a reaction to a threat from another country.  We have never had a planned approach to space and probably never will.
People are all over the place in so far as what to do.  There are those who are anti shuttle concept, support various LV's. , anti and pro astronomy,  those that support missions to various destinations.

We need a strong leader who will get an overall plan in place.

Evolution of the shuttle makes the most sense since it is in existence and is paid for.  We don't have the money to develop SLS/mpcv, JWT and it is unlikely that commercial crew will be successful due to limited funds.  Shuttle will ensure Hubble and ISS are supported and continue to function and maintain the US capability.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT to National Security.

The above programs will likely be cancelled due to funding issues-- the USA is broke and the budget deficit is out of control.

For the USA to be preeminent in space, we must use and improve Shuttle.  Otherwise the USA is relegated to second or third place in space.

There are 4 papers which make an overwhelming case to continue to fly shuttle.
They are:
The Case to Save the Shuttle by Al Richardson
On the Early Retirement of the Shuttle by George Jeffs
The Nonsensical Retirement of the Shuttle by Mr. DeCastro
Commercialization of Shuttle by ShuttleCom

The Shuttle is reliable and paid for as are the facilities.  It can support our on orbit assets, ISS and Hubble, place large payloads in orbit and return & repair as required, place exploration modules in orbit to go to other destinations.

We need to get this information to as many congress people as possible, and get funding to restart program.  This is critical to USA security.



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