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Prsident Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the somehow-I-almost-believe-this-one dept.

CDQZ writes "US President George W Bush declared today that he had signed a rare presidential decree canceling any further expenditure of Federal funds on the US Space Shuttle program."

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Pope by JoaoPinheiro · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think everyone's too busy posting on all the April Fools threads to actually read news.
    Maybe tomorrow we'll have a video of the Pope on TV saying "Haha! Prank! Fooled ya!!"

    --
    João Pinheiro
  2. Hah hah. Very funny. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I really hate this stupid f'ing "holiday". . . .

  3. Gullible geeks... by MayorDefacto · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Jeez louise, I mean, I know that a lot of us here have Asperger tendencies and don't pick up on subtle social cues (and even more simply don't RTFA), but I can't believe how many people are falling for this obvious April Fool's troll!!!

    Sometimes geeks can be so gullible...

  4. I wish they really would cancel it! by Eric+Smith · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I'm in *favor* of having a manned space program, but the Space Shuttle is a f$%^ing useless waste of money, now that it's only going to be used to get to the ISS, which is also a huge waste of money. It would be better to cancel both and spend the money on doing the next generation of space vehicles and stations properly, rather than having Congress and the administration whittle away at them until nothing useful remains.

    Anyone remember what STS, as in "mission STS-nnn" stands for? It was supposed to be a Space Transportation System. The shuttle was originally intended to be one component of the system, but due to budget cutbacks the rest of the system didn't get built.

    Similarly, due to budget cutbacks, the ISS can't be staffed enough to do any worthwhile research. Although they're still planning to expand it (which will be completed by about the time it has reached the end of its working life), they never built the crew escape vehicle, so they still can't have more than three astronauts/cosmonauts there unless the space shuttle is nearby.

    People say that the space program is worthwhile for the technologies developed and spun off, but the Space Shuttle hasn't been doing that for years now. It's the space equivalent of a beat-up '57 pickup truck. At least it's useful if it can service something that does produce worthwhile results, like the Hubble. But if it can't do that any longer, what's the point?

    C'mon, if we're going to build a space vehicle, let's build something that can actually go somewhere. And if we're going to build a space station, let's build something big enough to be useful (ideally rotating), with escape vehicles designed from the outset, rather than being an afterthought that gets cancelled.

    I'm fairly happy with Bush's space plan, but let's do away with the ridiculous crap we're wasting money on now. I don't see any point to more shuttle missions if they're not going to service the Hubble.

    And as far as the supposed risk goes, I doubt that NASA would have any trouble whatsoever getting enough of their astronauts to volunteer for a Hubble servicing mission, even if it is believed to be somewhat more risky than a mission to ISS. Note that NASA has not even done the risk analysis for a Hubble mission; they just decided a priori that it's dangerous!

    Sigh.