Give Space a Chance, Says Phil Plait

The Bad Astronomer writes "A lot of pundits, scientists, and people who should know better are decrying the demise of NASA, saying that the President's budget cutting the Constellation program and the Ares rockets will sound the death knell of manned space exploration. This simply is not true. The budget will call for a new rocket design, and a lot of money will go toward private space companies, who may be able to launch people into orbit years ahead of Ares being ready anyway."

Comments

the only reason we ever went to space

[circletimessquare]

was as a nationalistic machismo chest thumping exercise

like two drunks at a party trying to impress the same chick by grandstanding who can catch steak knives in their mouth

i'm sorry, but for all those who see spacefaring as the noblest of mankind's pursuits, the actual reasons for getting our butts into space was amongst the basest of motivations: tribal rivalry

india wants to thump its chest now, china, brazil, etc., and let them. its an enjoyable quaint nationalistic pasttime at this point, like hosting the olympics or setting off a nuclear bomb

i await the peruvian national space program launching a man into space, i look forward to the jamaican space ageny's first man on the moon, all the way on down to vanuatu

the future will be chest thumping by multinational corporations. what better way for microsoft to win PR for its product line over google's than to have its probe to ganymede run on windows 7 starter? or have it actually serve up search returns for select searches, with a slight latency?

and if a man ever gets into space again, his craft and his suit will look like nascar. gloves by nike, second stage booster with "viagra" on the side. its the american way, privatize everything: space agency, healthcare, prison systems, hired mercenaries. god bless america. i'm sorry, is that trademarked?