U.S. losing its lead in space, experts warn Congress, page 1
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ATS Members have flagged this thread 4 times
Topic started on 20-11-2009 @ 02:34 PM by Max_TO

U.S. losing its lead in space, experts warn Congress


www.mcclatchydc.com
WASHINGTON — America's once clear dominance in space is eroding as other nations, including China, Iran and North Korea, step up their activities, a panel of experts told the House subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Thursday.

"Others are catching up fast,'' said Marty Hauser, vice president for Washington operations at the Space Foundation, an advocacy organization headquarters in Colorado Springs. "Of particular note over the past decade is the emergence of China's human spaceflight capabilities.''

Russia now leads the world in space launches. China recently became the thir
(visit the link for the full news article)


reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 03:03 PM by jam321
reply to post by Max_TO



Has space fight / exploration become a dead issue among the American people ? Do the American people realize just what the ramifications would be for losing there top rank as a leading expert in space exploration ?


Why the American people? Seems to be the government, not the people making the space decisions.

I just think that many politicians feel it is a waste of money. Maybe NASA hasn't done its part to demonstrate the need for a solid space program.


reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 03:28 PM by SLAYER69
Originally posted by Max_TO
Has space fight / exploration become a dead issue among the American people ? Do the American people realize just what the ramifications would be for losing there top rank as a leading expert in space exploration ?

Why is funding for space looked at as a waist of money by many people ?


NASA is broken




Great topic. As soon as I finish this reply. I'm going to star and flag.
I once asked a teacher of mine when I was in grade school why did we stop going to the moon. He replied that the public lost interest because NASA was BORING and people thought we should take care of other more pressing economic and social problems we were having down here on Earth also NASA was saving up it's funding for the space shuttle fleet.

I agree with some of the above. Don't get me wrong and I am well aware of the advances the space program has brought about. There were/are many hidden benefits from the space program too many to count.

BUT NASA is boring! They provide very good science but they make their discoveries about as exciting and eating pocket lint. In the early 70s and most of the 80s if you asked most NASA people and Computer people for that matter what got them excited about those fields they would say things like Star Trek and Star wars 2001 space odyssey, NASA moon landings were hardly mentioned.

Now we find ourselves funding unpopular wars and running huge deficits. Good grief. Once we beat the Soviets to the moon most of the people lost interest. We had a nation wide program. Back in the day NASA had something like 6% of the national budget. Now it's something like .3% and falling.

We are shooting ourselves in the foot.

[edit on 20-11-2009 by SLAYER69]



reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 03:36 PM by Erasurehead
reply to post by SLAYER69



Agreed. The US space program is boring. 40 years ago we sent man to the moon, that was exciting. All we seem to do these days is orbit earth in the space shuttle....WOW, how exciting. The Mars missions were pretty interesting I guess but it would get more attention if the sent people to explore instead of robots.

Maybe a little competition will spur innovation and creativity once again so I don't see this as a bad thing.


reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 07:44 PM by AshleyD
reply to post by Max_TO




The only thing that would make this ok in my mind would be the event that there is some supper top secret space program that renders NASA irrelevant.


That's actually what I'm sitting here thinking. It would seem likely the United States government has some top secret projects going on. They must know something and are up to more than just shuttle orbits and Mars rovers.

Think of it along the lines of government/military aircraft. They finally release information once the technology is obsolete. But by the time we hear of it, it's old technology. The government does this quite often and will only present something, that generally is amazing, that we never knew existed but was in use for 50 years.

Or perhaps think along the lines of some UFO sightings possibly being top secret U.S. space vessels?

[edit on 11/20/2009 by AshleyD]


reply posted on 21-11-2009 @ 04:45 AM by Imagir
Originally posted by AshleyD
reply to
post by Max_TO




The only thing that would make this ok in my mind would be the event that there is some supper top secret space program that renders NASA irrelevant.


That's actually what I'm sitting here thinking. It would seem likely the United States government has some top secret projects going on. They must know something and are up to more than just shuttle orbits and Mars rovers.

Think of it along the lines of government/military aircraft. They finally release information once the technology is obsolete. But by the time we hear of it, it's old technology. The government does this quite often and will only present something, that generally is amazing, that we never knew existed but was in use for 50 years.

Or perhaps think along the lines of some UFO sightings possibly being top secret U.S. space vessels?

[edit on 11/20/2009 by AshleyD]


Right AshleyD!
This is what NASA have already in its hangars... (FOXNEWS)
www.disclose.tv...
A NASA Hypersonic jet that will able to blast off to six times the speed of sound whit a pulse detonate engine.

[edit on 21-11-2009 by Imagir]



reply posted on 21-11-2009 @ 06:34 AM by Zosynspiracy
reply to post by earthdude



The world is going to hell in a hand basket.....War, pollution, famine........and people like you think that "going forth" is going to produce what exactly. The idea of all of man's problems being solved by space exploration is immature and juvenile. NASA and space is a huge waste of money right now. I know I know........I hear it all the time.......oh but if it wasn't for space we wouldn't have supercomputers and Apple Ipods. As if the world and human beings need anymore technology????????????????

America has more homeless and starving people (children) than ever before, unemployment is going through the roof, our wars are milking us dry, corruption is more prevalent on WallStreet and in DC than ever................but yeah let's spend billions exploring space. Typical behavior of the human psyche......ignore reality and live in a dream world.
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