So it looks like the Space Shuttles will all be retired by 2010, and we'll have no possible replacement before 2015, so for five years we'll be depending on the Russians (mostly) to get to the Space Station. Stupid.
Maybe if we didn't just waste a trillion dollars in Iraq, we would have had the funding to get something going sooner. I know there are arguments against spending money for spaceflight at all. Guess what? I don't give a crap. Space flight is COOL. End of discussion.
This is just sad. I guess it was more important to make money for Exxon and Halliburton than it was to do this. I guess the only upside is that having little activity at NASA during the Bush administration means that there was less opportunity for Bush and his incompetent cronies to totally fuck it up.
I must confess I was not paying any attention to this issue. But it is interesting that it seems very little media attention had been paid to this for years. Like, when the decision to retire the shuttles was made when there was no replacement. Certainly there wasn't enough attention that I heard about it, and I tend to look at articles mentioning NASA.
*Sigh* Here's another reason for me to feel disillusioned with our federal government.
Reminder
12 years ago
2 comments:
Even though I'm generally a libertarian, I have no problem whatsoever with government spending money on space - and lots of it.
we learned a lot and developed a lot from the space program of the 1960s and 1970s ---
i didnt know that we would have a 5 year "gap" in programs
more excellent planning from the moron at 1600 pennsylvania avenue
this was one place american ingenuity shone -- and now he has even tainted that
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