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Armstrong, Cernan Testify Against Obama Space Plan

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the future-is-boring dept.

MarkWhittington submitted a story about the first man to walk on the moon testifying yesterday that President Barack Obama's plans to revamp the human space program would cede America's longtime leadership in space to other nations.

5 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So... by Yaos · · Score: 4, Informative

    He's not killing NASA, he's increased their budget by quite a bit.

  2. ASTRONAUT FIGHT! by buback · · Score: 5, Informative

    Buzz Aldrin disagrees

    Neil Armstrong Vs. Buzz Aldrin Over Obama's Space Plans
    CBSNews URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002451-503544.html

    Who do you think would win in a fight, Buzz Ald(I won't even finish the question)

  3. Re:So... by wizardforce · · Score: 4, Informative

    Obama didn't kill NASA, he killed Ares which from what I've seen, wasn't going very well. It's sad that 40 years after we got to the moon the first time, we haven't made much progress in developing a good vehicle to return. Not that the moon is really where we should be going at this point. The asteroids and Mars are better targets due to their long term potential to fuel space based industry and such. NASA needs to go a different direction than it was if we are to have any progress. NASA should be focusing on operations farther out from Earth like Mars, the asteroids etc not a taxi service to LEO.

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    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  4. Re:So... by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of all the things that Obama is doing, am I the only one who feels that him killing NASA really struck a nerve? It's literally the only thing he's done that made my blood boil.

    He's not killing NASA. Far from it, in fact. From TFA:

    Mr. Obama is actually proposing to increase NASA's budget, but he wants to terminate the $108 billion Constellation project, which the United States has already spent more than $10 billion on. Instead, the administration wants to outsource many of NASA's current manned exploration programs to private spaceships and focus on developing a new heavy-lift rocket for eventual manned flights to a variety of deep space targets, ultimately including Mars.

    Obama just wants to terminate one particular project that he feels is going nowhere and has become a money sink. You may disagree with his decision but it's still not "killing NASA."

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    This ain't rocket surgery.
  5. Killing NASA? I think not. by Larson2042 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Constellation would have done more to kill NASA than anything in Obama's new plan. Constellation was already over budget and behind schedule. If a fully developed Ares rocket had been dropped in NASA's lap, it wouldn't have been able to afford to operate it. So what do you think the next admin would do with NASA if it had been allowed to continue, accumulating delays and going further and further over budget?

    The new plan is the best chance NASA has had in a long time to get back on its feet and stop languishing in LEO. Developing the higher technology needed to go beyond LEO and the moon is what NASA should be concentrating on. Let commercial companies deliver stuff to ISS and LEO.

    (One a side note, it seems to me that almost everyone who hates Obama's plan forgets that there would have been just as long, if not longer, gap in US human spaceflight ability WITH constellation. We're not exactly losing a whole lot by giving commercial companies time to produce their human ferrying ability, as opposed to giving NASA time to work on Ares-1)

    With NASA buying rides at a few tens of millions each vs. billion+ per launch there will be a lot more money for accomplishing things besides putting stuff into orbit on a rocket with a NASA logo on it.

    So I'm all for the new plan. My biggest worry is that congress will screw up the whole thing trying to protect their pork.