NASA Moon Program Ends

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It also means that the U.S. would no longer have access to the International Space Station, most of which we paid for.

Unless Congress appropriates the money to continue to fund the Space Shuttle. Since it actually works.

The cancelled programs have never actually flown.
 
Beau_Ouiville said:
We should continue to charge other countries for launching their communication satellites. It appears that the moon program has not been funded.

The moon’s not going anywhere – we can visit later.
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The Space Shuttle is also cancelled.

Plenty of other countries launch satellites. China. Russia. France.
 
By the end of 2010, the United States will no longer have any way to put a crew into orbit and we will have no way of sending people to “our” International Space Station. [We built most of it and we paid for most of it.]

So, if the United States wants to send some crew members to the space station, we will need to ask the Russians if it would be ok to use the Russian launch system to put our men and women into orbit.

The other interesting thing is that one of the missions of the Space Shuttle is to provide extra boost to the space station’s orbit. Otherwise it would burn up.

That boost will no longer take place.

[No more Space Shuttle.]

What a waste!

What a sense of vulnerability: being reliant on the Russians/Soviets for our manned space program.
 
Monte_RCMS said:
By the end of 2010, the United States will no longer have any way to put a crew into orbit and we will have no way of sending people to “our” International Space Station. [We built most of it and we paid for most of it.]

So, if the United States wants to send some crew members to the space station, we will need to ask the Russians if it would be ok to use the Russian launch system to put our men and women into orbit.

The other interesting thing is that one of the missions of the Space Shuttle is to provide extra boost to the space station’s orbit. Otherwise it would burn up.

That boost will no longer take place.

[No more Space Shuttle.]

What a waste!

What a sense of vulnerability: being reliant on the Russians/Soviets for our manned space program.
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Yes, the U.S. is voluntarily putting its space program in 2nd or 3rd place. (Russia is also developing a next generation of powerful ICBM rockets, which will have application to their space program as well. The U.S. is not.)

In the future, we may find Russian and China inexorably ahead of the U.S. in Space, while we concentrate on developing the next generation of windmills and solar panels.
 
JimG said:
Yes, the U.S. is voluntarily putting its space program in 2nd or 3rd place. (Russia is also developing a next generation of powerful ICBM rockets, which will have application to their space program as well. The U.S. is not.)

In the future, we may find Russian and China inexorably ahead of the U.S. in Space, while we concentrate on developing the next generation of windmills and solar panels.
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We will design them, but they will be made in China.

The new growth industry in the U.S.A. is firewood futures.

Except that we have gone ahead and planted hybrid poplars in Afghanistan and those trees grow ten feet per year and put the U.S.A. forestry industry out of business. So, China will be given California to satisfy our debt obligation.

China will accept California, but in trying to influence the polygamy acceptance in Utah, the U.S.A. will begin an armed conflict with China over the issue of cloning body parts particularly to cure blindness.
 
garysibio said:
It’s not the governments business to be doing this. Let the private sector handle it.
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It was always the government’s business to be doing this and it will continue to be. From German V-2s launched at White Sands after the war to the Sputnik launch. The World War II rocket turned into the ICBM, and launchers for spy satellites.

The private sector has the capability to help and so do the Russians, but the Chinese are currently viewed as a potential threat. They are likely to keep going, look up our old moon base plans on the internet and figure out how to do it. I hope they do it. Hopefully, they’ll let us Americans visit their moon base after it’s ready.

Peace,
Ed
 
The by-products and inventions that came out of the space program will be missed on a first hand basis but will be available from the countries that remain active in space exploration. The interest in Math and Science engendered by the space program is something that hopefully will not completely die out.
 
Obama doesn’t hand China the moon

Critics of United States President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel a program that would have put American astronauts back on the moon say it makes the US more vulnerable to China’s advancing space program. But by shedding monolithic projects to concentrate on the development of the private space sector, Obama is taking one small step where China has yet to tread. - Peter J Brown.,

What the author talks about here is the lurcative privatization of space. It is a very good read.
 
The article represents the usual saber rattling. I doubt commercial space will be very lucrative, except for the military. I’m certain people will not pay $1,000 to get a package from Seattle to Zimbabwe via sub-orbital means. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will get rich people to near orbit aboard SpaceShipTwo but once the novelty wears off…

Commercial launch vehicles will still mostly carry military payloads.

Peace,
Ed
 
Monte_RCMS said:
We will design them, but they will be made in China.

The new growth industry in the U.S.A. is firewood futures.

Except that we have gone ahead and planted hybrid poplars in Afghanistan and those trees grow ten feet per year and put the U.S.A. forestry industry out of business. **So, China will be given California to satisfy our debt obligation. **

China will accept California, but in trying to influence the polygamy acceptance in Utah, the U.S.A. will begin an armed conflict with China over the issue of cloning body parts particularly to cure blindness.
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Would be a good deal as long as the liberals stay put.
 
edwest2 said:
Commercial launch vehicles will still mostly carry military payloads.
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I’d say mostly government payloads, since Delta and Atlas seem to be launching at least as many NASA science as military satellites these days. And if government is the main customer, I don’t really understand the commercial label.
 
garbargarbarglegablak

Whoever decided shutting this down instead of escalating in can … well, I can’t talk about it here, but you know. 😉

We are severely in debt, but I can think of a better way to save money than retarding progress: stop the darn war! Cut the funding of ****** projects!

:mad:
 
miguel said:
I’d say mostly government payloads, since Delta and Atlas seem to be launching at least as many NASA science as military satellites these days. And if government is the main customer, I don’t really understand the commercial label.
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Sure it’s commercial. A non-government, non-military owned company like Virgin Galactic, will simply put a tube containing a secret cargo on the back of SpaceShipTwo with only a pilot and copilot on board. Once they reach altitude, the front and back of the tube pop open and a short-range booster takes the small attached satellite the rest of the way into orbit. A few non-government communications companies will send up a few communications satellites, but hey, right now we can get over 200 channels on TV and there’s still nothing to watch. 🙂

Peace,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
Sure it’s commercial. A non-government, non-military owned company like Virgin Galactic, will simply put a tube containing a secret cargo on the back of SpaceShipTwo with only a pilot and copilot on board. Once they reach altitude, the front and back of the tube pop open and a short-range booster takes the small attached satellite the rest of the way into orbit. A few non-government communications companies will send up a few communications satellites, but hey, right now we can get over 200 channels on TV and there’s still nothing to watch. 🙂

Peace,
Ed
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What about a private company that launches only government satellites and likely wouldn’t exist without the government as a customer? Is that commercial?
 
It’s interesting to note that John Kennedy was a catalyst to our space program while “the last Kennedy brother” seems determined to end it.
 
Once space has been militarized by other countries, the U.S. may decide to get back in, but that may be too late. It’s always good to hold the high ground.
 
JimG said:
Once space has been militarized by other countries, the U.S. may decide to get back in, but that may be too late. It’s always good to hold the high ground.
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Too late for what? China is being watched like a hawk along with the rest of the world. There’s a lot of hardware in orbit. We have a successfully tested, laser anti-missile defense, and a lot more where that came from. With the current economic downturn, unless they can get specialists and materials for cheap, I doubt anybody is going to be doing anything significant soon.

Peace,
Ed
 
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