Thread: Obama's NASA fires Americans and hires foreigners

"Now suddenly, they're looking at no shuttle, no Ares 1, no NASA-owned spaceship of any kind in the near future. American astronauts for years to come will hitch rides to space on Russian rockets."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36070039/ns ... gton_post/

$500 million launcher lacks one thing: rocket

By Joel Achenbach

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. - Anyone need a $500 million, 355-foot steel tower for launching rockets into space?

There's one available at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Brand new, never been used.
The mobile launcher has been built for a rocket called the Ares 1. The problem is, there is not yet any such thing as an Ares 1 rocket — and if the Obama administration has its way, there never will be.

President Obama's 2011 budget kills that rocket, along with the rest of NASA's Constellation program, the ambitious back-to-the-moon effort initiated under President George W. Bush.

People here were shocked when they heard the news last month. They were already facing the imminent retirement of the aging space shuttle, and the likelihood of thousands of layoffs in the contracting corps but many hoped to find a Constellation job, stay on site and essentially just switch badges.

Now suddenly, they're looking at no shuttle, no Ares 1, no NASA-owned spaceship of any kind in the near future. American astronauts for years to come will hitch rides to space on Russian rockets.

"It's almost like losing manned space flight," said Michele Kosiba, 44, a quality inspector for United Space Alliance.

The space center is a unique place, built on a flat expanse of marsh and scrub that knuckles into the Atlantic. Long, straight, government roads are lined with ditches patrolled by alligators. Launch towers stand sentinel on the horizon. From here, the United States launched some of its most spectacular national achievements. But the decision to kill Constellation has shrouded this part of the world in an unfamiliar gloom.

People are dismayed and bewildered. Obama has gotten the message and will fly to the Kennedy Space Center on April 15 to hold a space conference and a town hall meeting. He is certain to point out that his budget actually boosts funding for NASA. The new NASA strategy shifts the task of launching astronauts to low Earth orbit from traditional government contracts to commercial contracts. If the private sector can create a taxi to space, NASA can focus on new technologies and longer journeys in the solar system.
"We think it's exciting," NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr., a former astronaut, said in an e-mailed response to questions. "It will enable us to do things we can only dream about today. It will foster new industries, spur innovation, create jobs and lead to more missions, to more destinations, sooner, safer and faster."

‘Cancel Constellation?’

A presidential commission, led by former aerospace executive Norman Augustine, reported to Obama last September that the Ares 1 would have limited use and that the heavy-lift rocket necessary for a moon mission probably wouldn't be ready until 2028. At that point, the panel said, there'd be no money left in the program for a moon lander or moon habitat. In effect, the Augustine committee said Constellation, which has already cost $9.4 billion, was destined for a (metaphorical) crash landing.

One can only surmise that this is no doubt in retaliation for some NASA scientists and other personnel refusing to go along with the global warming scam.

At least partly anyway.

What I'd like to know is where the funding money is going? It's sure as hell not going to his entitement programs....We the People are paying for all of that as part of his grand wealth redistribution plan....so my guess is that it's all being funneled into the possession of the "ists" of hope and change

The Houston area has managed managed to avoid most of the economic problem that have been caused (IMHO, intentionally to destroy this country). So what does Obama do but destroy one of this areas biggest job markets. I hope all of the sheep in the Houston area and that voted for this kind of change are happy with what they are getting.

Houston "We Have a Problem"

"One small step for the NWO"; "One GIANT Leap for the Marxist" in Power

Originally Posted by azwreath

One can only surmise that this is no doubt in retaliation for some NASA scientists and other personnel refusing to go along with the global warming scam.

At least partly anyway.

I read somewhere that Obama wants more NASA money to go to "climate monitoring", a field that has already been funded many times over by NASA, in the hopes that more unneeded satellites (there must be hundreds already) will go "Aha! I told you so! Look! There's evidence of global warming!" The Liberals have always hated manned space exploration, citing their erroneous fears that money spent in space could go to "funding lunches for poor school children". This "false economy" argument has always been proven false because the taxes paid by government employees and private contractors have always given more economic opportunities to Americans than some scam ridden welfare program manned by crooks.

This country is going, going down...