US CONGRESS WANTS A DIVORCE BETWEEN NASA AND RUSSIA SPACE PROGRAMS

[lovuian]

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2014/05/panel-moves-to-end-nasas-reliance-on-russia-to-reach-space-station/

Today Congress voted unanimously to fund more money into American commercial spaceflight and NASA

George Bush retired the Space Shuttle with no alternative transport system except "outsourcing" it to Russia

It was "cheaper" .....this Republican thinking has placed America in the weakest, most vulnerable position, and demonstrates America's power in Space.

Instead of giving Americans jobs and creating a rocket system here in America ...George and Republicans decided to "pay" the Russians 70 to 100 mill per astronaut.....and then gutted NASA.

We are paying for Congress idiotic decisions

[Lint Head]

1. OK?!

Then fund the bastard Washington asswipes!

[JeffHead]

2. So it's game on in the race for the Moon Base?

We have to jump start the new cold war somehow.

[lovuian]

5. The ISS is a trillion dollar joint venture

Its taken many years to develop

And right now Russia can get to it but we can't

and Russia knows it and so does everyone else ......

A democratic President Kennedy and Johnson long ago had a US Rocket program and transport our own astronauts

China is building its own space station....and Russia

The Republicans decided to "out source" our rockets and computers because it was cheaper than being done in America
Out sourcing is ok when your friends with the country your out sourcing too
but when you go to economic war that is a problem.

[doc03]

3. Nobody in Washington thought that outsourcing our space program was

was a fucking stupid idea. I was under the impression that Obama was the one that did that, should have known that came from that moron Bush.

[lovuian]

4. George Bush and Congress retired the Space Shuttle

then gave jobs and money to Russia instead of giving American jobs and building a rocket system which during
Kennedy's years America was the leader

Republican Congress is paying for their decision .....for freezing the budget and placing America in such a vulnerable position
Putin seems to have changed their minds and they have voted to fund the American space industry

Outsourcing weaponry and computers and rocket systems ....isn't a good idea especially when your own people could use jobs and benefits

[Algernon Moncrieff]

10. The Shuttle had an unacceptable loss rate

It was hugely expensive to operate and maintain. It never lived up to it's cheap/reusabe selling points. Don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge fan. I've been to the Cape many times and seen many Shuttle launches. I saw Challenger fly out on it's last complete mission. But the Shuttle was a product of political design compromise, and it showed in the final product.

The shuttles flew a lot of missions. However, five shuttles were built (not counting Enterprise, which never went into space). Columbia burned up and Challenger exploded. I think that informed a lot of thinking.

None of this is exclusive to space. Manned aircraft are going away. The Air Force will be all-drone in a decade, I predict. Maybe not the Marines or Navy -- close air support ith drones might still be a little ways out. Unmanned freight aircraft are coming. Pilotless passenger aircraft will take more time, but they are coming too. Driverless cars and trucks.

We can point fingers ar Republicans all we want, but truth-be-told, plenty of Dems have expressed reservations about why we're spending billions on space programs that do little to solve problems here on earth. Increasingly, it just doesn't seem like people will spend a lot of time in space for purposes other than tourism. The zero-g laboratory breakthroughs that seemed just-around-the-corner in the 80s have failed to materialize, and we don't seem like we're going to Mars anytime soon. Heck, we don't seem like we're going back to the moon anytime soon, and that's 45 year old technology; the average tablet or laptop has more computing power than Mission Control had back in the day.

Long story short -- Richard Branson is likely the future of Space Travel.

[KeepItReal]

6. Good. Give the funds to NASA and Space-X

Eom

[jimlup]

7. I'm concerned about the implications for the ISS

While the project has not even lived up to modest expectations and also has no real future due to the awkward orbit which must pass over the Russian launch site - the ISS is currently the only manned program the nation has. If we divorce the Russian space agency then we have nothing and many years exist between now and a currently limping badly manned US launch development program.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

8. There are two real decisions we have to make.

Decision 1 is whether Putin's bad behavior of late is enough to warrant walking away from 20+ years of cooperation in space. I'm working under the decision that we will divorce from the ISS -- or at least legally separate. The goodd news is that we've probably learned as much as we will about Russia/USSR's hard won expertise in long duration orbit.

Decision 2 is whether we are going to Mars. Really deciding -- not coming up with some pie-in-the-sky we'll do it in 202whatever. I thought a big part of what we were supposed to be doing with the ISS was developing the long term endurance skills for a joint venture to Mars. I tink there's a lot of popular support for the idea; however, there is lukewarm support for the price tag. That said, nothing fires up a Space Race like cold war with Russia and China.

Truth be told, if we were to commit to a reusable space vehicle right now, I'd support building a drone with two remote Space Shuttle style Canada arms that could be used to start collecting the massive array of orbiting space junk and bringing it back to earth.

[Avalux]

9. You are full of the imaginary...

and create the invalid. Marvelous!