Does Pres. Obama desire the USA to slide into mediocrity?

Does Pres. Obama desire the USA to slide into mediocrity?  Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Eugene Cernan raise the question.

From Politico with my E & C.

Armstrong: Obama hurting Space effort

Neil ArmstrongFormer astronaut Neil Armstrong has issued a strongly worded rebuke of President Barack Obama, criticizing the president for proposed revisions to the U.S.’ space program.

Armstrong, along with astronauts James Lovell and Eugene Cernan, called the proposal “devastating” in a letter obtained by NBC News. Read below for the full text:

"The United States entered into the challenge of space exploration under President Eisenhower’s first term, however, it was the Soviet Union who excelled in those early years," the letter begins."Under the bold vision of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with the overwhelming approval of the American people, we rapidly closed the gap in the final third of the 20th century, and became the world leader in space exploration. …

"When President Obama recently released his budget for NASA, he proposed a slight increase in total funding, substantial research and technology development, an extension of the International Space Station operation until 2020, long range planning for a new but undefined heavy lift rocket and significant funding for the development of commercial access to low earth orbit.

"Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]

"America’s only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) [?!?] until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope.

[NB:] "It appears that we will have wasted our current ten plus billion dollar investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded.

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,[NB:]  destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. [Is that what POTUS wants?] 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.

Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. [Is that what POTUS wants?] America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.

Neil Armstrong
Commander, Apollo 11

James Lovell
Commander, Apollo 13

Eugene Cernan
Commander, Apollo 17

 

Forty years ago today, Jim Lovell and the crew of Apollo 13 were struggling for their lives trying to return to earth.  Failure was not an option.

Apparently failure is now an option.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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41 Comments

  1. Obama and other Liberals and progressives HATE American Exceptionalism. The United States domination of space and space technology is one of the greatest examples of American Exceptionalism and why they want to destroy it. To be sure if we as a nation and also as a species fail to return to space and colonize space we as a species will all die on Earth. The only way to grantee our continual survival as a species is to colonize space. This is one endeavor that regardless of politics needs to be a top priority so that we may one day develop the technology to leave the confines of our Solar System and establish colonies on distant Earth-like planets. Why would anyone not think that this is important in the grand scheme of the Human Race? It is in our nature to desire to explore and colonize and spread our culture it is only natural to extend this to space and the Universe. It may be the only means of survival for us at some point. We are never going to get there if we keep playing in low-Earth orbit we have wasted 30 years already. We need to go to the Moon and set up a base and then to Mars.

  2. The Egyptian says:

    Neil is from my county seat, Wapakoneta, Ohio. He is quite reclusive, (I don’t know were he lives now) for him to come out and talk is a statement in its self. We are being led by buffoons and satanic ones at that. It seems that the goal is to dispirit and depress Americans and put up themselves as the only hope, He wants to be our Savior, wants to be FDR on steroids. The leader of the new American Catholic Church, just ask the polyester nightmare nuns and traddy priests, can you say Phleagar.

    Neil Armstrong air and space museum
    http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/places/nw01/index.shtml

  3. johapin says:

    Under Barack Hussein, “Failure is not an option, IT’S THE ONLY OPTION”

  4. Papabile says:

    Not only do they expect an increase in cost per seat on the Soyuz rockets, but they expect it to go from $50 to $100 million.

    But, the real devastating part of the plan is to abandon the R&D effort without a concomitant commitment to retain the engineers involved. You lose that knowledge base, you’ll never get it back.

    We are seeing the exact same thing with our shipbuilding capabilities, as we are now spiraling down to irrelevance in terms of fielding a bluewater Navy. In just a few years, we will no longer have the ability to build one aircraft carrier every six years. And, it will be because of lack of knowledge base, not because of cost. The cyclical layoffs are devastating that industry.

  5. Athelstan says:

    I hate to assume the worst of people – even politicians (even Obama) – at all times. In their own minds, there is almost invariably some facially positive motivation at work, however mixed with darker motives – and motives are rarely unmixed in politics.

    It has been apparent from Obama’s remarks about NASA going back to the campaign that his enthusiasm for manned space flight is tepid. On the other hand, he would like to be reelected, and Florida is critical to that reelection. And Florida likes manned space flight – and the jobs (and pride) it provides. So this is a risky and strange move for Obama.

    What is stranger is that the space program is the one area where he has opted for a more private sector solution. To the extent that he is expanding the opportunities for private space companies like SpaceX to take a bigger role in space, I support the administration’s proposal. And I suspect so does Armstrong.

    Where Armstrong has a point is in asking why we cannot continue Constellation in some form while COTS companies get their sea legs, since that will take a few years even under the best circumstances. The Augustine Commission quite rightly was critical of the large cost overruns and long delays on the Ares I launcher – and rightly suspected that the mammoth Ares V would never work without a whole lot more money.

    But there are other, more cost effective and faster-to-develop heavy launch proposals on the table, derived from existing shuttle launch systems – such as Direct/Jupiter, and the so-called Shuttle-C alternative, both of which were treated positively by the Augustine Commission. These would have the virtue of keeping much of the shuttle industry infrastructure intact. So why not keep the Orion capsule and ditch Ares for one of these? And meanwhile you can keep giving contracts out to private space companies, eventually letting them take over orbital operations while NASA focuses on beyond-earth orbit exploration.

    I have no idea. But it’s a question Congress ought to ask before signing off on sending our astronauts up on Russian rockets for the next 4-6 years.

    Thanks for the reminder about the Apollo 13 anniversary, Fr. Tonight would be a good night to re-run Apollo 13.

  6. Peggy R says:

    We can only hope he stops at mediocrity. This man in the WH is a source of daily “freak-outs.” He has no intention of letting up on his agenda of destruction.

  7. I don’t think he’s out to make this country merely fourth-rate. I think he’s out to destroy this country. If you think he’s not out to destroy this country, then you have to ask yourself what he would do differently if he were.

  8. wanda says:

    Mediocrity is where we are headed. We have the POTUS’s own Science Czar John Holdren (of sterilants in the drinking water fame) teaching his students that America can’t be number one forever. Hurry up November 2010 and November 2012. Keep ‘the change’, thanks.

  9. New Sister says:

    POTUS is deceived & blinded by narcissism and hubris built up by the devil’s chief agent, MSM! (I think) they have led him to believe himself capable of managing pacts with the evil (e.g., Russia, Iran, Islam) …he does not see how hated we are. Yes, letting fall our space program is one more nail in the coffin of America, but the final blow to our country’s strength, as Bishop Sheen aptly pointed out in his address to West Point Graduates (“Centurions of Rome”, available from http://www.keepthefaith.org ), is the fall of the military, which is well underway by his sanctioning of immorality in the ranks – sodomy, a sin that “cries to heaven for vengeance.”

    For the sake of our Nation, we need, as our Holy Father has exhorted us, to increase and spread the Divine Mercy devotion – imploring God to see within us “His Dearly Beloved Son” as we cry out for His Mercy upon our beloved country.

  10. Brian Day says:

    Papabile makes a good point about the loss of the knowledge base. The other lesson we have seemed to have lost is the spin off of new technologies that accompanied the Apollo program. Everything from calculators to personal computers to cell phones all have their origins in the space program. How many civilian technologies will be delayed or never developed because of a scaled back or non-existent space program?

  11. Vetdoctor says:

    I was listening to the radio this am and they played a quote fro obama at the Nuclear Arms conference. “Whether we like it or not we are a military superpower….” was the start of his quote. Like it or not? Perhaps we would be better off being a poor nation.

  12. New Sister says:

    Vetdoctor – that is *so* telling! (as telling as his wife’s, “for the first time in my life I am proud of my country”)

  13. New Sister says:

    …and Brian Day, I would add the MILITARY to your comment on top technologies having their origin in the Space Program (thus, Space & Defense). This administration is weakening both, which answers Father Z’s question, “is this what POTUS wants?” – YES, to pay for State Socialism, he will next cut into defense spending, *Like it* or not.

  14. Salvatore_Giuseppe says:

    I must say I disagree with your position Father, as well as those of the above astronauts.

    That is not to say I do not want space travel. Far from it. Living in Florida I have had a chance to visit Kennedy Space Center, to marvel at the size of the Saturn V, I can see shuttles race through the sky from my driveway. It is not something to see vanish.
    As Neil DeGrasse Tyson recently said on the Colbert Report, astronauts are the only celebrities people will line up to get an autograph from, without knowing or caring who it is. That is the kind of amazement we have at their accomplishment.

    That said $10 billion plus is a lot of money spent on a program not even near completion, and widely criticized by people inside and outside of NASA for being an inefficient system of rockets.

    Just look at what Virgin Galactic has been able to do in just 6 years, creating ships capable of sub-orbital travel. And presumably for a lot less than $10 billion, as Branson is only worth a net total of $1.8 Billion.

    Private companies can and will do anything better and cheaper than government. Especially when the Government isn’t around to undercut profitability. Compare the $50 million per seat Russia is charging to get us into space (granted it is into actual Space) compared to the mere $200,000 Branson plans on charging to put paying costumers into sub-orbital space.

  15. Traductora says:

    I have always thought that Obama, with his confused self-image, regards himself as the “Third World Avenger,” come to wreak retribution on the United States. This is because in his confused Marxist mind, the US is the source of all evils. I think even the Democrats whose candidate he was didn’t understand his true agenda; they thought they were using him, but he knew he was using them and also that he was using American blacks, by implying that he was one of them. But he wasn’t, his loyalties lie elsewhere, and now he’s in the White House and able to do whatever he wants to us.

    In his mind, it’s not “fair” that the US excel at anything; it’s not “fair” that we have (or had) a happy, prosperous people; it’s not “fair” that people look to the US – and not some retrograde Muslim dump – for leadership. Since he really had no solid self-image or solid cultural experiences as a child, he was left free to create himself in the image that most appealed to him. And the “Third World Avenger” won, probably because he has a truly scary lust for power and that role would certainly gratify it.

  16. Anonymous Seminarian says:

    While I value the technologies accidentally developed… is it really the business of our government to be spending so much of our money on space exploration? Where does NASA fit in our constitution’s ever-fading hope of limited government?

  17. Neil Armstrong was a professor at my alma mater, the University of Cincinnati. I have met him twice, once a seminar with a small group of students. He is not a man in search of the limelight, and would just as soon fade into obscurity. For him to be this outspoken underscores the gravity of the situation.

    Space exploration, and related developments, have been responsible not only for creating thousands of jobs, but for any number of developments in science and technology, most of which were inspired at the time out of necessity. That matters of domain might be at stake in future colonization, by itself could warrant government involvement. On the other hand, that government may be more beholden to private enterprise in any future plans.

  18. ghp95134 says:

    …s it really the business of our government to be spending so much of our money on space exploration?….
    You’ve gotta be KIDDING me!

    Chart: http://foofus.com/amuse/public/Fedspending-2008-linechart.jpg

    Source: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/14/153249

    GHP

  19. Salvatore_Giuseppe says:

    ghp95134,

    Just because a lot of other programs spend money on things they shouldn’t doesn’t excuse NASA. The fact that NASA is a smaller program makes it an easier beginning place. Cutting DOD or Social Security will be much more difficult (but still needs to be done)

    17.31 Billion works out to be $57.57 per citizen. I don’t know about you, but as a college student, I could use 60 bucks. And it goes up to just a few cents shy of $80 if we count only those over 18 (generally those who are paying taxes of some kind)

    Meanwhile, to trumpet Virgin Galactic again, they have managed to make sub-orbital travel possible without a dime of Government money. That’s a pretty good deal for me, all things considered.

  20. Jacob says:

    Father have you ever read Spengler at Asia Times Online?

  21. deborah-anne says:

    “Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

    How ’bout two Amen’s…Amen, Amen!

    I heard a sound bite on FNC saying the funds that were to be used for the Ares program are being ‘redistributed’ to other programs. Redistribution??? I thank God I’m surrounded by beautiful vineyards because after hearing this news, I have a sudden need to squeeze some grapes!

    Even Potus needs a good rebuke from time to time. Go Neil Armstrong!

  22. mr_anthony says:

    Sorry, this is one of those few times where I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum here. We don’t need more spending on the space program, we need even less. The fact is mankind does not require a government to go into space. The real frontier here is in privatization, and it is long past time government monopoly over “space” be put to pasteur. More is to be gained in private ventures such as Virgin Galactic than in more billion dollar money pits like the shuttle program turned out to be.

    Frankly, NASA, the Post Office, Amtrak, GM and a host of corporations either created, purchased or bailed out by the government need to be sold and forced to deal with market realities.

    There is a market out there in research, technology, medicine and even tourism for space. It won’t die if the government reduces its footprint. Just look at the recent MIT and British science experiments that proved you could build balloons capable of snapping pictures of the Earth from space for merely hundreds of dollars…

    Methinks NASA and Neil protest too much…

  23. muckemdanno says:

    mr_anthony has it right. What’s all this talk about the president wanting to destroy America… over the space program??? It says right there the spending on the space program is INCREASING!!!

    What happened to the Republicans complaining about government spending and asking for free markets? Whoever wants to explore space should pay for it themselves.

    The space program should be ended. What it was about to begin with was a PR contest (which the USA won) with the USSR (which no longer exists.) We did manage to explore the moon and found that it is a complete wasteland. If we explore Mars, we will find the same result, I’ll bet.

    P.S. – The budget deficit for FY 2010 is about $3 TRILLION dollars…

  24. momravet says:

    My Mom, who is going to celebrate her 83d birthday soon, told me that these are the worst times that she can remember (from a person who lived through WWII, Korea, the upheavals of the 60s and 70s, the Cold War, etc.).
    We have a President who cannot lead, cannot inspire people, and has no goals that would better the country as a whole. Many people say he’s a socialist, my own opinion is that he is a godless communist who cares nothing about the country or it’s people and only cares about furthering his own demented agenda, no matter what.
    He is the great leveller who’s views seem to project that no one need bother striving for anything because the “nanny state” will provide (and make sure to check the “Bill of Rights” at the door). In short, he’s a more communist version of Jimmy Carter.
    Like other communists before him, the President skews away from religion unless when he’s trying to use it to further his agenda (the blind nuns and the Healthcare bill).
    He’ll try to gut or discredit anything that support religion, the Constitution, the Founders or any program that inspires people to push beyond their own personal boundaries and to strive towards becoming the “best of the best”.
    The space program is important for national defense (of which the President appears oblivious).
    I think the President needs to check out the oath he swore to at the inauguration, it did say something about…” preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the UNITED STATES.”

  25. EXCHIEF says:

    The bottom line, IMO, is that this country has elected an EVIL person with an EVIL agenda. Anything and everything he does is for him, not us, not the country, not the Constitution, not history, but him and his legacy. He is arrogant and by his words, tone and body language conveys the impression that he thinks he is the smartest guy in the room…when in fact we’ve all heard the statement that he is the least experienced and least qualified guy in the room.

    He has no respect for what this country has accomplished in the past or the good it has done in the world. He also has no plan to improve the nation but, rather, his Marxist mentors have convinced him that his mission is to destroy us as a world power.

    Obama, God’s punshment for the moral decay in the USA. Pray.

  26. Sedgwick says:

    Mediocrity isn’t the half of it. No single nation will be allowed to present a threat to the hegemony of the New World Order, more accurately known as the Fourth Reich. The United States, just like the USSR, will become fragmented under this devil Obama into a series of regions and independent states, as various local entities rebel against his leftist totalitarianism and secede from the Union. The rebellion against “Obamacare” is only the beginning. So the grand Masonic experiment, the United States of America, will be destroyed by another Masonic experiment, world government.

    By the way, have you noticed how most commentary objecting to Obama’s policies has focused on the harm he is doing to the economy? Not a word about the moral economy, only about how much less money we’ll have in our pockets. See the conclusion of EXCHIEF’s post above mine.

  27. mr_anthony says:

    Guys, lets not go off the deep end. President Obama probably isn’t evil (Hey, I don’t know him), but he is WRONG. He’s as WRONG on ‘the issues’ as George W. Bush was.

    Don’t allow yourself to be blinded by the tit-for-tat of American politics. If you are, you will not keep in mind the overall trajectory of this nation: towards perpetual bankruptcy, perpetual war and perpetual government in all directions and against all peoples.

    A road to serfdom, indeed…

  28. mdillon says:

    Liberals, like our President, hate risks. To liberals the space program is a risk. So is human life; having a baby is a risk. That’s why, to them, it is better to kill the risk.

  29. Peggy R says:

    Sedgwick: While probably not every one–but MANY commentators and the general public, including Catholic bloggers and blog commenters have expressed outrage about the radical pro-abortion policies of Obama–undoing Mexico City, public funding of abortion.

    There are horrible moral and social consequences of the economic policies of Obama. Socialized medicine has many horrible elements that, will not only financially bleed the middle class, but will allow publicly funded abortions, euthanasia or denial of care, usurp parental rights. There are also moral and economic consequences of people not buying insurance until they enter an emergency room, then dropping coverage once the crisis is passed. See Massachusetts problems for details.

    The national stability we have enjoyed is being pulled out from under us. We are the enemy of the State, it seems. The policies of Obama are hitting us where we live, literally, not just financially. Our rights to life and liberty are gravely at risk. That’s why people are very freaked out. But, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have outrage for the pro-abortion evils of this man.

    I think underlying the fiscal concerns are the concerns for life and liberty. Obama has consistently taken the side against people seeking liberty, at home and abroad, since taking office.

    May our Father have mercy on us and deliver us from this evil. For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

  30. moon1234 says:

    What people forget is that MANY MANY AMERICAN people are employed on these programs. Sending the money to private companies is just redirecting taxpaower dollars to private companies. Many of whom I will bet money will be foreign companies. So now more Americans are going to lose their jobs and those unemployed people will now be paying taxes that will go to foreign workers in the space program.

    Obama is ANTI-AMERICAN! The space program was a proud achievement of the USA that should be renewed. If Aries rockets are crap then how about a presidential diretive to NASA to design a new propulsion system that will carry peopel into orbit? How about space tethers, sea based space canons, etc?

    I fail to see why we need to stop the shuttle just because it is an old system? If it is working now why not keep using it until something new comes along. We used Edison’s glowing wire for over a century after all. We need innovation, not sedning taxpayer dollars to private foreign intrests.

  31. mikew says:

    This is outstanding!

    I applaud Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan for standing up and taking this position. When I heard what the new budget was calling for with regard to space exploration I knew then that Mr. Obama, his administration and all Democrats in power were not serious in any way about the exploration of space. We will indeed slide into the mediocre morass of a third world existence buying transport to a space station that was largely financed on the back of the United States taxpayers. We will now be paying Russia for the transportation needed to get into space for some time to come if not forever.

    When I watched the test flight of the rocket that was launch this last winter I thought I was seeing the future. I suspect that I wasn’t but maybe, like the B1 bomber, it can be resurrected (pardon the use of the word) by a future administration that understands the value of space travel and all of the many benefits that it gives to us… certainly John F. Kennedy did. On a recent trip to Cape Canaveral I was told on a tour that for every $1.00 that is spent on the United States space program (NASA), $7.00 is generated in the economy, not to mention spin-off benefits!… $7.00! That is astonishing! There is no better value for our tax money that this! Why do we not spend more? The old adage that we should spend on our problems here on earth is empty and trite. Spend money where it has great benefit. Please show me any – ANY – government program that returns any money: AMTRAK?… GM?… probably never will… banks?… no… bailouts?… no… then what? Only NASA has the unique ability to generate more money that was spent due to entrepreneurial activities that take place all around the space program: materials development, computer development, tool and hardware development, commercial aircraft development, medical development, education, high-tech of all kinds and the list goes on and on. The very PC you are reading this on is, in large part, due to developments that were garnered as part of the space program.

    I urge everyone to support the space program at every turn. It is well worth every dollar we spend on it and probably more. I pray that we never become a third rate power in the world by foregoing our lead as the space-fearing nation in the world. This is among the things that makes us great. Nations look to us to be leaders. If we abandon this we will be giving up our leadership position in one very important area which touches on technology, business, national security and countless others. What will be next? Where next will we turn away our attention? With all of our faults – and there are many – we remain the best hope for freedom in the world today!

  32. Thom says:

    No wonder the U.S. government is $11+ trillion in debt. No one can even propose even a measly reduction in the rate of funding increases for a trivial money waster without conservatives (in this case) screaming bloody murder.

  33. Athelstan says:

    “I fail to see why we need to stop the shuttle just because it is an old system? If it is working now why not keep using it until something new comes along. We used Edison’s glowing wire for over a century after all. We need innovation, not sedning taxpayer dollars to private foreign intrests.

    The three remaining shuttles are between 20 and 26 years old, and not getting any younger. While safety precautions and repairs are better than they ever were before, there’s a creeping risk factor with every additional launch you make.

    On the other hand, stretching them out for a reduced schedule of a handful more launches while Orion is made ready might be an acceptable risk. But this decision would have to be made quickly since the production lines for system parts are being shut down now.

  34. robtbrown says:

    No wonder the U.S. government is $11+ trillion in debt. No one can even propose even a measly reduction in the rate of funding increases for a trivial money waster without conservatives (in this case) screaming bloody murder.
    Comment by Thom

    Here are some of the products of that “trivial money waster”:

    NASA Spinoffs with Practical Applications

    Under the Space Act of 1958, NASA has had a mandate to share all the information it has gained with the public. Here are a few of the practical applications that have resulted from technologies and information learned by space scientists:

    * CAT scans
    * MRIs
    * Kidney dialysis machines
    * Heart defibrillator technology
    * Remote robotic surgery
    * Artificial heart pump technology
    * Physical therapy machines
    * Positron emission tomography
    * Microwave receivers used in scans for breast cancer
    * Cardiac angiography
    * Monitoring neutron activity in the brain
    * Cleaning techniques for hospital operating rooms
    * Portable x-ray technology for neonatal offices and 3rd world countries
    * Freeze-dried food
    * Water purification filters
    * ATM technology
    * Pay at the Pump satellite technology
    * Athletic shoe manufacturing technique
    * Insulation barriers for autos
    * Image-processing software for crash-testing automobiles
    * Holographic testing of communications antennas
    * Low-noise receivers
    * Cordless tools
    * A computer language used by businesses such as car repair shops, Kodak, hand-held computers, express mail
    * Aerial reconnaissance and Earth resources mapping
    * Airport baggage scanners
    * Distinction between natural space objects and satellites/warheads/rockets for defense
    * Satellite monitors for nuclear detonations
    * Hazardous gas sensors
    * Precision navigation
    * Clock synchronization
    * Ballistic missile guidance
    * Secure communications
    * Study of ozone depletion
    * Climate change studies
    * Monitoring of Earth-based storms such as hurricanes
    * Solar collectors
    * Fusion reactors
    * Space-age fabrics for divers, swimmers, hazardous material workers, and others
    * Teflon-coated fiberglass for roofing material
    * Lightweight breathing system used by firefighters
    * Atomic oxygen facility for removing unwanted material from 19th century paintings
    * FDA-adopted food safety program that has reduced salmonella cases by a factor of 2
    * Multispectral imaging methods used to read ancient Roman manuscripts buried by Mt. Vesuvius

    And last but least, computer generated animation.

  35. EXCHIEF says:

    Thom
    Conservatives are not screaming just because of the proposed reductions in the space program although given robtbrown’s listing of the secondary benefits of that program that alone would be enough to justify screaming ludly. Conservatives (as you call them) as well as a growing number of independants are screaming because of Obama’s systematic assault on aspects of our society which have evolved over decades and have proven beneficial not only to this country but the world. Not surprising from one who, along with his wife, have found little to be proud of in terms of this nation.

  36. Thom says:

    Thanks for the list, RobTBrown. I have little doubt that all of that could have been developed much more cheaply without NASA. Many, if not most, of the items on the list (and especially the last one) are trivial in nature anyways. Furthermore, I doubt that NASA can even take credit for the whole list.

    But I’ll grant your point for the sake of argument. It doesn’t change the fact that the government is practically bankrupt. For any other organization (yours and my families for instance), that means expenses have to be cut drastically. Not so for Washington, D.C. Bankruptcy means its time to spend even more. Why not? The Fed just creates money out of thin air anyways.

    This is the practical matter which will cause the nation to fail, not trivial things like whether or not astronauts are sent to the barren landscape of Mars.

  37. PostCatholic says:

    Wow, the anger here. You’d think a place called “What does the prayer really say?” would attract people who would ask “What did the politician really say?” But nope: ready, fire, aim. Here are two simple facts.

    1. NASA exists to pioneer aeronautical research, expand scientific knowledge about the universe and its origins, and to empower the exploration of space through a multitude of programs.

    2. The proposal was to cancel a specific, expensive human spaceflight program for a moon mission, not to end all space exploration.

  38. The man is evil, we need to pray him out of the US (along with most of Congress)

  39. PostCatholic says:

    Cool. You do the praying, the rest of us will do the voting.

  40. wanda says:

    I’ll be in line to vote right behind you. Maybe I’ll write to our President and suggest that all the billions of dollars that go to Planned Parenthood here and around the globe would be enough to support NASA now and for years to come.

  41. catholicmidwest says:

    I’m not sure Obama is intending to drive anything into mediocrity. I just don’t think he comprehends that what he likes is mediocrity. It’s all he knows and all he can see. He himself is mediocre in many ways. He’s innumerate for one thing. And his excuses are totally lame. He constantly lectures and people are sick of it.

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