President Barack Obama is trying to tamp down an uprising in politically vital Florida against a new strategy for NASA that has rankled space veterans and lawmakers and sparked fears of job losses.
Obama's decision to kill NASA's Constellation program to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon has prompted soul-searching on whether the United States is prepared to cede a pre-eminent space role to Russia and China.
"As with all great human achievements, our commitment to space must be renewed and encouraged or we will surely be surpassed by other nations who are presently challenging our leadership in space," Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. Congress from Florida wrote to Obama last week.
Obama's move for a greater private sector role in space launches -- as he seeks to keep ballooning federal deficits in check -- has generated fears of job losses among thousands of NASA employees who provide an important economic base in Florida, a state usually crucial in presidential elections.
Employees at major space complexes in Alabama and Texas are also worried.
It is making for a potentially explosive environment when Obama travels to the Cape Canaveral area on April 15 to host a space conference with top officials and leaders in the field.
"What reception will they get? Not good," said Keith Cowing, editor of nasawatch.com, a website that closely monitors the U.S. space agency. "It's a gutsy move. It's Daniel in the Lion's Den."
Obama, in his Feb. 1 budget proposal, planned to increase NASA's overall funding to $19 billion in 2011 with an emphasis on science and less spent on space exploration.
He would cancel the Constellation program's Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets, after $9 billion and five years of tests. Constellation is aimed at returning astronauts to the moon in the 2020s to clear the way for a Mars mission.
Instead, Obama would spend $6 billion a year for five years to support commercial spacecraft development and pursue new technologies to explore the solar system in what the White House called "a more effective and affordable way."
4 comments:
If we could convince Obama that we are looking for illegal space aliens to be the future of undocumented democrat voters he would double the funding.
Stop screwing with space! When shuttles are launched into space repeatedly it becomes a game rather than scientific discovery. Nearly everything that is done on the missions can be done right here on Earth. Billions of dollars are wasted. How much more is known about space now than was known 20 years ago? How much that is known know was discovered while on space missions? How much that is known now was discovered by imaging conduct from Earth? It is a waste of money and those who are affraid of losing funding are afraid of getting a job that requires more than mere speculation.
What impact does shooting shuttles in to space have on the atmosphere? NASA is not a priority right now, production within our boarders is, keeping families able to support themselves is, feeding OUR children is. Once the people of the US can make an honest living without constant worry of losing everything they have, then invest in NASA programs again, but for now let it come down a notch or ten.
If I wrote this article, I would not have used the word "kill" as in "Kill the Constellation program," as if the program was a healthy animal that was brutally taken down on some hunting safari.
In actuality, The Constellation Program was weakening by the day. There is some debate as to how "alive" it was in the first place. NASA wasted almost as much money designing the stupid vehicles than the entire Apollo program.
The Constellation Program was like a sick, half-dead elephant preyed upon by hyenas. Obama was just gracious enough to put it out of its misory.
it's time for private enterprise to take over this role. I know many many people who sit over at the goddard flight center doing nothing all day except collecting a paycheck! Our tax dollars could be put to better use. The FAA was mandated several years ago to implement rules governing private space travel and the companies wanting to get involved with it. To date nothing has been accomplished by the tombstone agency!
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