Surprise NASA move may force shutdown of Constellation program

Surprise NASA move may force shutdown of Constellation program

www.physorg.com

The effect of the directive, which went out to contractors earlier this week and which Congress was told about on Wednesday, may accomplish something that President Barack Obama has sought since February: killing Constellation's system of rockets, capsules and lunar landers that has already cost at least $9 billion to date.

(visit the link for the full news article)

With all the money they are spending to shut this program down, they could leave the program running and give that money to people in the gulf coast area.

This is another way to keep Americans jobless, by cutting high-tech jobs, and letting other countries take the lead in the space race.

At least we are giving Palestinians millions of dollars though.

SM

www.physorg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

There goes another 5000 hi-tech jobs. This administration says one thing and does another. I'm all for private ventures, but most of them are small startups. Russia is making rocket component into commodity with 30+ year old technology. They should have whacked GSA, OPM and list of other bloated gov agencies instead.

Constellation needs to be shut down. It was an expensive road to where man has gone before (using basically the same ideas).

NASA should be tasked with creating enabling technologies and infrastructure for long term exploration. Not limping to the moon on an Apollo re-run vanity project.

The business of getting to orbit should be a business. If government depts are the most efficient way to do things why not nationalise industry? Why do the people who are against government bureaucracy in healthcare support it for space travel? Whats the logic?

Preferring govt bureaucracy to private enterprise sounds like socialism to me, and i'm a european...

The obama plan is actually sensible and will encourage innovation. Its just not obviously sexy at first glance. Look beyond the hype coming from those upset that their gravy train is sinking.

I agree completely with dismantling this program. NASA was envisioned to be working on the projects that are not currently possible. We have already been to the moon. Been there and done that. We already have the technology to go to the moon; why waste money on something we already know how to do? NASA should be working on the projects that we do not currently have the technology or know how to do.

Orbital insertion will be taken over by private corporations. This is absolutely clear. Corporations will be able to do it cheaper and faster than the government will be able to do it.

You know this is true.

In the end, the private corporations will be able to employ those "5000 jobs lost" and then some! That means less money out of the pockets of tax payers, and more money into the private business economy! Its a win-win situation!

Let NASA work on the things man can not do, and leave the things that we can do to private businesses. Put this wasted money back in the hands of the taxpayers, or towards something better.

[edit on 10-6-2010 by xmaddness]

Originally posted by xmaddness
I agree completely with dismantling this program. NASA was envisioned to be working on the projects that are not currently possible. We have already been to the moon. Been there and done that. We already have the technology to go to the moon; why waste money on something we already know how to do? NASA should be working on the projects that we do not currently have the technology or know how to do.

Orbital insertion will be taken over by private corporations. This is absolutely clear. Corporations will be able to do it cheaper and faster than the government will be able to do it.

You know this is true.

In the end, the private corporations will be able to employ those "5000 jobs lost" and then some! That means less money out of the pockets of tax payers, and more money into the private business economy! Its a win-win situation!

Let NASA work on the things man can not do, and leave the things that we can do to private businesses. Put this wasted money back in the hands of the taxpayers, or towards something better.

[edit on 10-6-2010 by xmaddness]

I have to say I know nothing about this up front ... but what I see reading the board is:

.... ANGST and worry and many people soon to be out of work, people whom we are dependent upon to be able to work hard, ... Some 5000 people who are high tech innovators and risk takers ... and suddenly they carpet is yanked out from under them -- in the middle of the great big crunch, which they (Gov) are trying to fix
...

Orbital insertion will be taken over by private corporations. This is absolutely clear. Corporations will be able to do it cheaper and faster than the government will be able to do it. You know this is true. In the end, the private corporations will be able to employ those "5000 jobs lost" and then some!

Immediately, within 60 days? ... are they ready for such a transition?

I hope you are right .. the rest of that sentence I can't agree with, if the Gov guys have the money, they will spend it, they are compulsive even when they think they are not .. I think it is in the air in DC, some bug or something.

I will go read Obama's reasons, and see what he says, but still, is this really a good move in the current state of affairs? .. I worked for Martin, they got such jacked up prices (because they were Gov) it makes the current medical scandals look tame. Private companies do not tolerate that kind of financial abuse. I thought that was the idea in the first place?
...
I agree that charity starts at home. It is OK for banks, it is OK for car makers .. why is it not OK for rocket scientists and their backers?
...

Such a conflicted world ... Sell your talents to the Swiss, and let Area 51 roll out some of it's hardware to fill in the gap, and see how that flies.
```~*~```~*~ ``` ~*~ ```
Oh, and read up on NASA (Richard Hoaglands new book is insightful) .. they seem to have to have star correlations for each of their "achievements". If they could not roll out new ideas with out the proper conjunctions ... well, who knows ... ???

I think the point of going to the moon wasn't to just go there again.

They were supposed to build a moon base / research facility, which would have given NASA some experience on long term survival on another body, which HASN'T been able to do.

They could have set up a launch pad and sent crews to the outer planets or asteroid belt or wherever, and saved a load on fuel since they would be launching with less gravity. Which man hasnt been able to do.

Would have been a nice view for a telescope also. Which man hasnt been able to do.

So we cancel something man hasnt been able to do (nor private industry for the foreseeable future), to do something else man hasnt been able to do.

Its a wash.

I am thinking the best of the best will still be used to do the work, because of the logistics and the military perspective. It might go dark, but we seem to have a lot of non-white / bright laundry these days.

I think China and actually Out-Loud Saudi Arabia were talking about being paid in Bullion after the dollar debacle ... you know how well that would fly, and China is totally freaked that we might put bases (with ICBMs or worse on the moon).

Do you really think there is anything left in the asteroid belt worth getting (considering we are hit up for water and other things all the time by the spook saucers)? I had wondered about mining it, but now they have found that huge settlement in S. Africa dating to 200,000 BCE ... seems like the Sitchin Gold miners might have been real.

On another tac, the gold might have been vaporized int the Great Pyramid to fix our atmosphere after the nuclear events which happened here (Indian Lit.)

It is NASA's fault for delaying the constellation program not Obama's fault. Bush gave them the money the asked and told them by 201o or was it 2012 to go the moon again. But once Bush left office NASA decides to do something else because of "costs". Then they go before Obama's administration to ask for more money. How much does this crap cost? They even didn't have plans for a new LANDER! They had no intentions of going back. I still don't believe we went and with all these delay's it shows it.

Originally posted by justwokeup
Constellation needs to be shut down. It was an expensive road to where man has gone before (using basically the same ideas).

NASA should be tasked with creating enabling technologies and infrastructure for long term exploration. Not limping to the moon on an Apollo re-run vanity project.

The business of getting to orbit should be a business. If government depts are the most efficient way to do things why not nationalise industry? Why do the people who are against government bureaucracy in healthcare support it for space travel? Whats the logic?

Preferring govt bureaucracy to private enterprise sounds like socialism to me, and i'm a european...

The obama plan is actually sensible and will encourage innovation. Its just not obviously sexy at first glance. Look beyond the hype coming from those upset that their gravy train is sinking.

I couldn't disagree with you more. I actually think its' a slap to the face of everything the U.S. space program has accomplished over the years.

Now we have to rely on foreign countries for our own space program. We shouldn't be having to pay countries like Russia to launch our own astronauts into space.

The constellation program should at least be carried forward in the private sector instead of all that research, testing and money being utterly wasted. But it won't. Companies want their own signature space vehicles being flown by American astronauts. Thus, the American space program will inevitably be a corporate multi-national effort. Now all those NASA jobs and all that money will go to other countries instead of right here in the U.S. where it belongs. Meanwhile, we're completely dependant on other countries for our own space program.

The big problem all along was funding though. NASA's had budget problems for a very long time. Bush's "war" on science didn't help either. Neither did the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. Plus, we all knew the space shuttles would only last so long. Why more wasn't done to come up with an alternative sooner was probably mostly due to constant cuts in NASA's budget.

Of coarse, the Air Force's space program is booming!

-ChriS