On the seven year anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the Obama administration will unveil NASA’s budget. According to inside sources the president has decided not to include a $ 1 billion boost to the space agency. As NASA struggles to accomplish the tenets of the Vision for Space Exploration this further lack of funding will at best only further delay plans to return astronauts to the moon before pushing on to Mars.
The Augustine Commission in its report to the president stated that NASA could not develop the Ares I rocket, which would be used to carry the crew into orbit. To adequately do so would require the funding that NASA had been promised – but later denied. Alongside the Ares I there would also be developed the heavy-lift capable Ares V – which would be used to hoist key flight hardware, lunar landers and the necessary upper-stage. With this shortfall in funding the fate of both vehicles is placed into doubt.
Obama’s budget request does not align with what many insiders deemed to be the president’s chosen selection Augustine’s list of options, the so-called ‘flexible option.’ This option would scrap plans for extended stays on the moon for short visits on a variety of locations including the moon, asteroids and Mars. In short, this plan would be an extension of the ‘flag and footprints’ style of missions as seen during the Apollo era.
The issue of how NASA is supposed to achieve lunar landings within the five-to-fifteen year timeline placed on the agency when the space agency would be forced to abandon its Ares I rocket was sidestepped with the promise of as-yet unflown and untested ‘commercial’ launch vehicles. Meanwhile the Orion spacecraft would continue to be developed – with no launch system to lift it to orbit.
NASA has struggled for some time to accomplish the mandates of the Vision for Space Exploration. However, the space agency, still saddled with the space shuttle until the end of this year was unable to properly fund the shuttle, International Space Station as well as design and build a new family of rockets to once again break astronauts from the bonds of low-earth-orbit. NASA, hoping money to fund all its endeavors would materialize, went on and tested the concept of the Ares I rocket this past October with the launch of the Ares 1-X – which may now stand as the only flight of this launch vehicle. The final determination on the future of America’s space program will be made this spring.
Comments
That is Sad Obama, you need to give them the money, they deserve it, they might be what saves the planet. If an asteroid hits and there is no life on Mars, we're screwed, we won't be able to live because we won't have a colony on Mars that could fly back to earth and rebuild. So, ultimately, Obama could lead us to Disaster. Way To Go.
Thanks Obama, this is change we can believe in, hinder our space programs and allow the Chinese and everyone else to succeed while we meander in a sixty billion dollar condo in earth orbit that is only accessiable to elites like yourself. Obama, You truly hate this great nation.
Its a good thing we're diverting all of that budget that used to go to NASA. It's not like they would use it for anything important. What did the common man ever benefit from spaceflight? Let's see...The electronics we're using to view this blog was inspired by the need to make computers smaller, lighter, more efficient while being more powerful. Advances in all areas of medicine, and the International Space Station brought together countries and showed humanity we can work together as one world towards a greater good. It gave aspirations and dreams to our young as well as a bonafide set of heros. No president in our history has single-handedly been responsible for our nation taking one giant leap BACKWARDS.
When it comes to space exploration, the Obama Administration is a total failure.
Just a though on how history will view the Obama legacy....
1962
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
2010
I choose to not go to the moon. I choose to
not go to the moon in this decade and not do the other things, not because they are hard, but because I am just not competent, because my goals will serve to organize and measure the best waste of our energies and skills, and resources. Because that challenge is one that we are unwilling to accept, one I am unwilling to finance, and one which we, the modern Democrat party intend to kill, and regardless of public opinion too.
Obama. What a dope. Or is it by design? Even scarier if he's intentionally trying to destroy the American spirit.
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