White flag of Surrender

White Flag of Surrender

NASA may have been backing away from the real challenge of human space flight for years, but in canceling Constellation and NASA manned vehicles, we are, in effect abdicating our role as the leading space faring nation of the world. America will lose its preeminence in space.

The real economic impact will not be immediate.

The public at large is not fully aware of NASA's role as a principal driver in our economy for the past 50 years. They forget that much of the technology we now take for granted either originated in the space program or was utilized and improved by the space program. That is NASA's real legacy. The investments we made in NASA in the sixties are still paying off in technology applications and new businesses.

The annual investment in NASA is not simply an expenditure; it is an investment—with a payback. The payback is generated because NASA operates at the frontiers of space, exploring the frontiers of our civilization.

At the frontiers of space, be it going to Mars, or constructing the most amazing engineering project in history—the International Space Station—huge obstacles, sometimes considered insurmountable, are encountered. NASA takes these obstacles as challenges that must be overcome to reach their goals. The solution may lie in new technology, or a new application of existing technology. These solutions eventually make their way into the marketplace with applications we never even dreamed of. NASA has tens of thousands of examples of these "spinoffs."

Now, after spending $11 billion on the development and close out of the Ares 1 launch vehicle and the Orion space capsule, we are eliminating them. Gone! And with them, most of NASA's human space flight program. In the ongoing struggle for leadership in science, technology and exploration, which was represented by America's pre-eminence in space, we have raised the white flag of surrender. Walter Cunningham

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