On the seventh anniversary of the fall of Columbia, President Obama has just de-facto killed NASA Manned Space.
I have no words.
Wait, yes, I do.
"Burn in hell."
UPDATE:
I note that Bill Gawne (wcg)
linked to an article er, quoted a NASA release pointing out that although the entire Constellation program is being axed and there is no other NASA manned booster presently left in line to replace the Shuttle, the shuttle is going to fly out its final five planned missions, and NASA plans to develop a future launch program more capable than Constellation (and hopefully with less reliance on the Morton-Thiokol solid boosters). So the picture is not as black as the news reports first made it appear. It's not the end-of-NASA-manned-space that the news reports made it out to be. (I won't speculate on the reasons, but it's entirely possible they simply didn't understand.)
It is still almost the most callously insensitive timing possible. To make the announcement now is, IMHO, a slap in the face to everyone who picked up after Columbia and said "We can go on, we can overcome this and do better."
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I think in another hundred years people will wonder at our penchant for sending flesh and blood into lethal environments to do things that silicon and titanium could do as well for a tenth the cost and with none of the danger. Robots will be mining asteroids, terraforming Mars, and setting up factories on the moons of Jupiter, and we'll be kicking back with cold ones on the beaches of this sweetest of all planets. Those who crave danger and discomfort will still have Everest and Antarctica, or the Moon for the really hard-core.
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No words can cover this, none at all.
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The Augustine Commission report (http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf) states that Constellation will suffer delays that make it unsuitable for supporting the International Space Station, and the same task can be done more cheaply and on a similar timetable in the private sector.
Do you disagree?
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I will note that Bill Gawne (
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All these management factors, from the managers themselves to process to history to culture could better be called the corporate DNA ... I would bet you any amount of money I could get to the GAP faster starting from scratch than starting from Walmart ... Corporate DNA acts as a value multiplier. The best corporate DNA has a multiplier greater than one, meaning that it increases the value of the people and physical assets in the corporation. (http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2005/12/why_its_ok_if_g.html)
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if nothing else, we can do our best to try to make sure no one else gets smeared into the stratosphere in those things.
i strongly hope they do follow through on continuing to push to space. i can't argue with the idea that it should be done a bit more efficiently, though.