Been there, Done that---Obama's space policy

Been There, Done That Is Obama’s Space Policy
April 16, 2010

Barack Obama’s narcissistic space policy can be summed up in four words:  Been there, done that!  Been there and done that, so why bother doing it again?  The rumors of a reprieve for the shuttle program appear to be unfounded.
“…“I just have to say pretty bluntly here, we’ve been there before,” Obama said in a speech laying out his plans for NASA on Thursday. Obama insisted that he was “100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future,” despite his decision to end its space-shuttle program. He stressed creating a role for private companies and commercial space missions to help explore deep space and predicted that within his lifetime America will “send astronauts to Mars and bring them back safely.”…”

Obama is continuing the Orion problem, but killing Constellation and paying a $2 billion fine for it.  He’s also going to keep that multi-billion dollar light-rail boondoggle in Florida .   He thinks private industry can do it, turning NASA into an expensive R&D agency.
It is about American exceptionalism.  It is about a loathing Barack Obama has against America as a great nation. It is about destroying everything that is truly Great in this nation.
Lori Garver, the real power at NASA is against manned exploration of space.  The Pink Flamingo told you this was going to happen when Obama was running for POTUS.
“…We do not intend this post to be a personal attack upon Deputy Administrator Garver. But it is clear that she was a key player in policy that leads to the destruction of our nation’s human space flight program. As such, we feel it is important to point out her past, contradictory positions on our current nation’s human space flight program, Project Constellation.
As the WSJ’s Pasztor notes, Ms. Garver came into NASA questioning Constellation’s budget and long-term viability; in truth, her opposition to Constellation predates her role as either head of the Obama NASA Transition Team or Deputy Administrator of NASA and goes back to 2004, the very time in which she herself wrote that she “…was supportive of the vision”. At the very least, this makes her disingenuous. Worse, Ms. Garver’s comments regarding beyond earth human space exploration during the debate with Frank Seitzen in October 2004 raise the issue of her commitment to human space exploration….”
It is obvious this is a Democrat thing. 15th District Florida Republican Congressman was treated like dirt.  Bill Posey’s statement:
“...“I am committed to helping the President keep his August 2008 commitment to Brevard and the nation; first to close the space gap and second to keep America first in space. I do, however, align my concerns with those recently expressed by astronauts Armstrong, Lovell, and Cernan about the President’s current plan which falls short of these commitments. He has not budged on his plan to retire the shuttle eight months from now and that is deeply disappointing to me but I will continue to press for Shuttle extension.
“I am very concerned about the impact this plan will have not just on the workforce at KSC, but also the adverse impact on our nation’s military industrial base and America’s economic competitiveness. Let’s remember the benefits of space extend far beyond the direct actions related to launching rockets….”
Obama snuggled up with Florida Dems and thumbed his nose at Florida Republicans and the people who work at KSC and those who are going to be losing jobs.
“...Instead, Brevard County, Fla., which expects to lose 6,000 jobs with the retirement of the shuttle fleet later this year, would get $40 million to retrain workers for new careers, if Obama’s newly revamped space exploration blueprint is approved by Congress.
As expected, the overhauled strategy also revives the canceled Constellation program’s Orion capsule as a space station lifeboat, and allots $3 billion over the next five years to begin work on a heavy-lift launcher (Aerospace DAILY, April 15).
The revisions have placated two key critics of the administration’s original proposal — Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, both of whom accompanied Obama aboard Air Force One for the flight to Florida. Before arriving at the O&C building, which had been cleared of Constellation banners, the president’s motorcade made a brief stop at Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) launch complex on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where the firm’s Falcon 9 rocket is being prepared for a debut flight next month.
Obama’s budget proposal for NASA for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 includes $6 billion over five years to seed commercial space transportation services to ferry crewmembers to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. already hold NASA contracts worth $3.5 billion. SpaceX has lobbied for Congress to exercise a $300 million option on its NASA development contract to upgrade the Falcon 9’s Dragon capsule with a launch escape system to carry people….”
I like the way No Quarter puts it:
“...Barack promised (and we know how reliable he is on fulfilling his promises, just ask Reverend Wright or Gay soldiers) to add $1.2 billion to NASA’s annual $17.3 billion dollar budget. Except the current shuttle program is going to be shutdown and more than 7000 workers will lose their jobs. But fear not, Barack is going to add 2500 jobs.
Now, how is your math? If you subtract 7000 and then add in 2500 do you have more or less than what you started with? In the fantasy world of Barack Obama you have more. Bubblehead boy apparently does not understand that 2500 is not greater than 7000….”
In short, there is no plan, no grand vision, not nothing, the budget process is a wreck.  It is all smoke and mirrors.  Buzz Aldrin may think Obama is the next great space god, but he’s one of the few who do.
“...The administration’s proposed policy shift has generated widespread opposition in Congress and among current and former NASA contractors and civil servants.
“We are very concerned about America ceding its hard earned global leadership in space technology to other nations,” read a letter signed by more than two dozen former astronauts and NASA managers, including legendary flight directors Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft and Glynn Lynney.
“We are stunned that, in a time of economic crisis, this move will force as many as 30,000 irreplaceable engineers and managers out of the space industry. We see our human exploration program, one of the most inspirational tools to promote science, technology, engineering and math to our young people, being reduced to mediocrity.
“NASA’s human space program has inspired awe and wonder in all ages by pursuing the American tradition of exploring the unknown. We strongly urge you to drop this misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future.”
Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, the chief architect of the Constellation program, said he did not understand “how this plan, if that is the word, is an improvement.”
“We had an integrated architecture,” he said in an email. “They have hope. We had a ‘public option’ along with commercial alternatives, when and as they matured. They have a commercial option only, they are leaving the International Space Station a hostage to fortune, and they are spending money on technology in what might be termed a faith based initiative. We knew how to replace shuttle, get to the moon and go on to Mars. They don’t.”
An open letter signed by Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell and the last man on the moon, Gene Cernan, was equally blunt.
“For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature,” they wrote i a letter first posted by NBC News.
“While the President’s plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years.”…”

: Destroying NASA, NASA, NASA History, Planet Obama, Stupid Democrats
: Apollo, Lori Garver, Mission to Mars, Mission to the Moon, NASA, Neil Armstrong, Orion
Comments are closed.