Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA May Have to Buy Trips to Space

Posted by samzenpus on from the hey-buddy-can-you-spare-some-change dept.

MattSparkes writes "Budget cuts could leave NASA without a Space Shuttle replacement, and leave it reliant on private firms to get payloads into space. A similar scenario happened between 1975 and 1981 when NASA made the transition from Apollo to the Space Shuttle. It seems like a strange state of affairs when a magazine can take people to space, but the USA can't."

6 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious solution.. by gentimjs · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just swallow the pride and buy a few Soyuz .... too bad its built in the wrong congressional district .... :-(

  2. NASA by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is despicable. We need to ensure that our astronauts are up in space. Down here, they try to kill each other.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:NASA by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is despicable. We need to ensure that our astronauts are up in space. Down here, they try to kill each other [cnn.com].

      At least this didn't happen on the way to Mars.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  3. Not such a Bad Idea... by errxn · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...considering that as of this morning, the Shuttle crew has turned into its very own episode of the Jerry Springer Show.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
  4. Re:Not the same thing by pilgrim23 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Indeed. There is not a single zillion dollar toilet seat on board, the average age of employees is somewhat less then 60, and they have a real fiscal agent called a Financial Officer looking at the bucks spent. The Shuttle on the other hand uses 8086 era tech, systems that are so obsolete that the fellow who designed them is not just retired, he is dead, and other such inovations. Yep. a company is not in the same game as NASA....Thank Goodness!

    --
    - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  5. Re:Sorry, but I had to by kalidasa · · Score: 3, Funny

    I do not, however, believe space exploration is within the constitutionally defined limits of what the federal government should be doing.

    Seems to me that it fits right in with the commerce clause.