Former Astronauts Call Obama NASA Plans "Catastrophic"

krou writes "Talking to the BBC at a private function held at the Royal Society in London, former astronauts Jim Lovell and Eugene Cernan both spoke out about Obama's decision to postpone further moon missions. Lovell claimed that 'it will have catastrophic consequences in our ability to explore space and the spin-offs we get from space technology,' while Cernan noted he was 'disappointed' to have been the last person to land on the moon. Said Cernan: 'I think America has a responsibility to maintain its leadership in technology and its moral leadership ... to seek knowledge. Curiosity's the essence of human existence.' Neil Armstrong, who was also at the event, avoided commenting on the subject."

Comments

Re:What "empire"

[drinkypoo]

None of that really changes anything. The US has the world's largest standing military in terms of ability to project power; China does have more troops (and India has about as many) but come on, look at what we're fielding. We spend more money, and we have more stuff to toss around. Presumably though, China could start spitting out warmachines at absurd rates any old time. Then again, so could we. The whole subject is just ugly. I think the real question is whether it's justified, though. If China decided to get all expansionistic, the whole world might end up very glad that the USA is a big bully. I sure hope that's not how it goes down.