Prsident Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program

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."

Comments

I'm not quite sure how ....

[isometrick]

... but ... is this really the frist post? Wow.

Its a conspirices!

[SWTP_OS9]

Art Bell cover this last week along with Richard C Hoglan. Yea the monument of Mars guy.

This the so called problems with the Space Station and the Hubble being forced off line. Its to hid the fact that Planet X is comming next month to smash into the Earth. Wiping out everthing!

They want to use the remining shuttles as escape pod for key memebers of the goverment.

Kind of Ta Ta! And thanks you for the Fish!

Hah hah. Very funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

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

This is obviously an April Fools'

[MrEd]

If the Bush Administration cancelled the space shuttle program, they'd do it by passing a "Space Access Freedom Act". Except it would be better named, and would work out to an acronym of SUPER or SPACETACULAR or STARS or something like that.

along the same lines

[studoug]

The Astronomy Picture of the Day site http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html is about breaking news the water has been found on mars.

: 0

Re:along the same lines

[Your Pal Dave]

Thanks for the link, but, next year, if they do something regarding Uranus, I don't think I want to know about it.

Re:apart from today's date

[MyLongNickName]

I believe there stupid enough to do it anyway....

Anyone else see the irony?

fool's evidence

[LuxFX]

I think this paragraph gives it away:

During the press conference Bush told reporters, "I don't want to see another NASA administrator - appointed on my watch - left to justify a program to Congress based on lies, dis-information, half-truths and sexed up reports."

The way I see it, it's basically commentary on how the WMD reports and the failure to find any. There was a new report that came out a couple of days ago saying that our intelligence was, quote, "dead wrong." I think this is a reference to that report.

(at least, I hope...)

I wish they really would cancel it!

[Eric Smith]

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.

Re:I wish they really would cancel it!

[Kymermosst]

I wish they really would cancel it!

That was my first thought, too, upon seeing this Slashdot post.

The shuttle is damn expensive to operate, as this guy points out.

The single biggest problem is, IMNSHO, is that the shuttle was designed three decades ago, and is still a first-generation vehicle. Sure, there have been upgrades, but there is one simple fact: We could build a better system right now.

We have experience. We have new technology. We have a long list of "lessons learned" from the shuttle. We have new partners in space exploration.

With these assets in mind, we could presumably devise a new reusable launch vehicle, hopefully one that reduces cost to less $1500 per kilogram to operate.

Wish I had more time to think about this, but unfortunately, Linear Algebra awaits...

Not a bad idea

[marcus]

4/1 or not, actually cancelling the STS and redirecting the funds to the next gen SSTO would be a good decision.

I agree with the idea of cancelling the gov as well. As it stands, much of the gov has already cancelled itself anyway. They do nothing constructive. What we need to do is cancel their paychecks.