Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Should Obama have killed NASA?

Yes,  I know the agency still exists, but the proposed 2011 budget essentially guts manned space flight for the US.  He has cancelled the Constellation program (which Bush 43 had severely underfunded) and is underfunding the Ares program.  After the final flight of the Shuttle early next year the only access US astronauts will have to the ISS will be in rented seats on Russian spacecraft.  That's for at least 5 years.   The odds are very good that China, and maybe India, will leave low earth orbit before we do.

During the interval NASA is hoping that the commercial sector will develop cargo spacecraft to service the ISS.  I have friends who work a couple of these companies, and privately they are dubious about the chances for real success.

So,  let's all encourage our representatives to fully fund our heavy lift boosters and long-range manned spacecraft.   Look at it as high tech jobs stimulus.

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