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Space Entrepreneur Opines Donald Trump Could Do an Inspirational Space Program (examiner.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the you're-fired-off-into-space dept.

MarkWhittington writes: Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace opened his new Twitter account with the suggestion that Donald Trump, the mercurial businessman who is running for president, might just give the United States an inspirational space program. Then, thinking better of the idea, Bigelow deleted the tweet and replaced it with an image of the Olympus inflatable space module, which his company envisions as being the basis of a commercial space station.

6 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Paging Mr Adams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Didn't we learn that the real purpose of the President was to distract attention away from those in power?

  2. I don't see why... by TWX · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...a person whose principal businesses seem to be geared around fairly short-term returns. Gambling businesses are all about the house making revenue immediately, and his real estate holdings seem to be based on building as big and as gaudy and filling that space as quickly as possible.

    The Space Program is not an instant-return kind of thing. It took the better part of a decade, spanning three presidential administrations, before the announced goal of putting a man on the Moon was realized. It took a similar amount of time to work the kinks out of the Shuttle, such that Skylab was lost when needed missions to service it didn't come to fruition.

    Even the nature of commercial space now is not a fast process. No commercial launch companies are man-rated yet, and I'd bet that while SpaceX wants to be, they're smart enough to not rush it too fast lest they have a setback-inducing failure that destroys confidence in the company.

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    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:I don't see why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Good. Shuttering NASA and pushing for private space exploration is the future anyway. It's well past time to get the US government out of space exploration.

    2. Re:I don't see why... by murdocj · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The next President will appoint 2 to 3 Supreme Court justices. As long as you aren't a woman, an immigrant, need health care, Muslim, poor, middle class, etc, it really doesn't matter who the next President is.

    3. Re:I don't see why... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You know, we don't exactly have a lot of money.

      Spoken like a true Depression survivor's child... And, if anyone recalls any history at all, how did we manage our way out of the Depression? (Hint: It wasn't by sticking our remaining money in a locked vault.)

      You want the potholes fixed? Great idea, let's do that. Hell, let's give infrastructure a boost back up to 3% of the federal budget, from the 2.5% where it's currently at, but not at the expense of shutting NASA down. Pushing NASA back up from 0.5% to 1% of the budget, and education up from 6% to 8%, and energy and environmental up from 3% to 4%, while reducing military spending from 54% to 50% would seem to be a good way to make this country stronger, long term.

  3. Re:He's right by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, I for one am glad that the Swedish media is actively declining to report mass rapes by the Muslim immigrants that the Swedish left has imported. Why did they do it? Well, to avoid giving the Swedish right (apparently they do exist) any proof that their opinions were backed up by facts. Good job Sweden, and keep up the good work. Keeping the right from political power is more important than keeping women from rape.

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!