Crimson Red Sports

I say badder than bad. Sad pictures of the Atlantis landing. Estimates say up to 12,000 people involved with the program could immediately lose their jobs. And now we have to rely on the Russians to put our astronauts into space. Now how did this happen?

:(

Bumming rides off the Russians is the way I put it last week. It slipped up on me too. Shuttle fleet getting old and the next generation of starships is not on the launch pad. America's best and brightest just got pink slipped.

That's the American way, outsource all of the jobs to other countries and then raise the taxes on those that still have jobs to make up for the money lost on the outsourced jobs.  >:(

I have mixed feelings.  I'm not for NASA losing 12,000 people, but I do think the bright minds at NASA could probably be used in a more productive way.  There hasn't been a whole lot of profound gains in research coming from that organization in the last 20 years, certainly not the leaps they were making in the 60s and 70s.  I would like to see them start doing more R&D for the military.

Bad because who will take over the Space now? Could it be China, russia, or Iran? I think obama has done it again by shutting down the space program. RTR!

I was under the impression that some other type of vehicle was in the works to be launched within the next 5 years or so for deeper space missions. Anyone with more knowledge of this than I know anything about this?

Obama said he wanted NASA as a Muslim Outreach

Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push 'Deeply Flawed'

Bolden created a firestorm after telling Al Jazeera last month that:

" President Obama told him before he took the job that he wanted him to do three things: inspire children to learn math and science, expand international relationships and "perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering."

Officials from the White House and NASA on Tuesday stood by Bolden's statement that part of his mission is to improve relations with Muslim countries -- though NASA backed off the claim that such international diplomacy is Bolden's "foremost" responsibility.


link (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/06/nasa-official-walks-claim-muslim-outreach-foremost-mission/#ixzz1SkzERfmW)

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So now we are going to have to bum rides to space from the United Arab Emirates?  :o

Russia is offering round trips to the Space Station for a mere $30 million.

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How much for a one way ticket?  ;)

Nope, the Democrats began the space program under Kennedy and the Republicans axed the shuttle under a directive of January 14, 2004, from George W. Bush, included in his "Vision of Space Exploration."

Yep, I remember that.  I thought it was pretty dumb at the time.  This is like Bama selling their team buses and bumming a ride to the Iron Bowl from the barners.

We're already pretty friendly with them.  I was in a meeting with an Emirati Major just a couple days ago.

BAD

Russia declares 'era of Soyuz' after shuttle

Moscow on Thursday declared it is now "the era of the Soyuz" after the US shuttle's last flight left the Russian system as the sole means for delivering astronauts to the International Space Station.

"From today, the era of the Soyuz has started in manned space flight, the era of reliability," the Russian space agency Roskosmos said in a statement.


link (http://news.yahoo.com/russia-declares-era-soyuz-shuttle-133921047.html)

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Too expensive.  It costs 3 times as much for us to fuel the thing to get it up there as it does the russians entire trip.  Our government cant do anything.  Make it a private venture.

But there really has. The boost we've seen in technology over the last 30 years is directly attributed to the space program. Whether it's technology developed and used by the astronauts and then passed on to tech companies for our use, or technology related to satellites sent into orbit, it came directly from the space program. This is a sad day in my opinion.

And don't forget the amazing revelations of the Hubble (which we can no longer repair, I suppose).

Rick Perry Accuses Obama Of Leaving Astronauts To 'Hitchhike Into Space'

As America bids farewell to the space shuttle era on Thursday, likely presidential candidate Rick Perry appears none too pleased with the Obama administration, accusing the president of “leaving American astronauts with no alternative but to hitchhike into space.”

In a sharply worded statement issued by the governor of Texas -- the state is home to the Johnson Space Center -- Perry charges that the Obama Administration

 “continues to lead federal agencies and programs astray, this time forcing NASA away from its original purpose of space exploration, and ignoring its groundbreaking past and enormous future potential.”


I like this guy. I hope he runs in 2012.

Link (http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/07/rick-perry-accuses-obama-of-leaving-astronauts-to-hitchhike-into-space.html)

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Your statement is way too broad.  What advancements and where are you getting your information from?  War is the best catalyst for technology; after that it is money.

Start with much of the computer technology and go from there.

Here is a link that talks a little about those techs.

http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html

Most of the technology on that page (NASA's own "this is why we're worth your tax dollars" page) is YEARS and YEARS old.  I'm not sure what line of work you're in, but I work in the tech field.  Actually my BS is in Computer Engineering, so I do read some technological publications and what not.  I've really not seen us get our money's worth out of the space program to this day.  It has been far more useful as a tool for national pride than science.

I agree, Doc.  Most of the tech advances are the result of military research rather than the space program. Plus, how many of the advancements would have come anyway by private industry working to fill a market need? I say pretty much all of them.

Right...I'm not saying that NASA hasn't produced some advancements.  They have, though most of them were in the 60s-70s.  But then you can throw money into R&D and get advancements regardless of the goal. IMO, the benefits of the end result - being able to put a man in space - has nothing to do with 98% of the advancements that were made.  It's just yet to prove worthy of the cost as far as I can tell.  Maybe someone in the medical, physics, or chemistry fields would disagree, IDK, but I just don't see it.

I also understand it's probably easier for me to make these statements than most people due to my youth (30yo).  I wasn't around for the space race with the Commies and barely remember the taste of the Cold War at all.  I just don't have the nostalgia for the space program that many Americans still have.

I remember the Space Race and the euphoria over landing a man on the moon (or the Nevada desert). At that time NASA was probably the best place in the world to work. But without a real goal to work toward, the whole space program just seemed to be the same as digging a hole and then filling it back up. Again and again.

I really don't know if the NASA tech. advances were worth the money they put into the space program or not (My guess is not, due to the huge bill), but those advancements have always been a part of the space program. Not so much lateley, but regular reports used to be newsworthy concerning some of those developments and how they were adapted to use by the average person. The only point that I was trying to make was that there have been significant gains by the bright minds of NASA.

If you think we've wasted money, be happy Bush's fantasy never happened of building another manned spacecraft by 2008 and landing on the moon again by 2015 and living there!

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/bush_vision.html

I would be happy to pitch in for BHO to move there.

I thought that Russia charged only $30 million for a round trip to the space station the US helped build, but it is actually $63 million.

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And it will be 200 million by the time we get finished printing worthless money.