We need to keep those shuttles flying until Orion is ready, and then design and build a second generation shuttle. The shuttle's capabilitites for repair, construction, and large payload return are priceless. Five years of the Russians and Chinese having the only access to manned flight and the ISS could have disasterous consequences. Bush may have looked into Putin's soul, but he was pretty myopic. IMHO
The space era is over, Obama has already said as much. All that money will be poured into an already failed education system to benefit the teacher's unions.
How do we keep them flying? The infrastructure for getting spare parts no longer exists and some of the parts that are on the shuttle now are in critical need of replacement if the shuttle is to be kept. Truth be told, if the infrastructe has to be rebuilt, just spend the same amount of energy building it for the next-gen vehicles.
Every dollar spent on the shuttle is a dollar that won't be spent on Orion or any successor program. The shuttle needs to go. Now. Besides, I think Obama is gonna torpedo the manned space program anyway.
Bush's decision to retire the shuttle before its successor was in place was another act of sheer stupidity for him. The breaks between Mercury - Gemini, Gemini - Apollo, and Apollo - Shuttle weren't as critical because we didn't have real estate in orbit during those times. We do now. Spare parts are an issue. Many of the production lines have already been shut down. And I agree: Obama will probably be a bigger dumbass and shut the whole thing down.
Here is the thing that many Democrats don't get with the space program. They see it a just a waste of money, but I saw a chart once that showed all the advances in technology due to the space program and the overall payback of that in the manufacturing sector and it was astounding. I wish I could find that again. It was in lots of different fields, heating/cooling, computers, solar, just all kinds of things. All these new technologies make our lives better and produce more tax money that more than offsets the cost of the space program. Plus we get some really cool pictures to boot.
Shut the fuck up with your partisan bullshit. Simple fact is, both parties have neglected the space program because they're too busy having dick-waving contests every two years. Republicans, as a party, don't give a shit about space. Democrats, as a party, don't give a shit about space. There are simply people within these parties (and without) who rightly consider it a good avenue of exploration and discovery. And, unfortunately, they are a minority nowadays. But don't you dare try to make it into yet another red-vs.-blue pissing match. To do so is a slap in the face to the very spirit of discovery you claim to be astounded by.
Let's be perfectly clear on this: we didn't go to space or to the moon for any reason other than beathing the Russians. And back in the 50s and 60s, both Republicans and Democrats were united on beating the Russians, even if they differed on the way to do it. And once they got to the moon and beat the Russians in the process, it no longer mattered to either party.
[action=Muad Dib] makes note to self: Ship Yankees home from Florida and take the state with the Balkanization. We need the spaceport.[/action]
Forget politics. The shuttle had to die or nothing else would ever have come along. People forget the Space Program was a Cold War program with all the funding and priority that entailed back in the day. Now, NASA is way down on the totem pole. Sadly, Barry O believes in gov't doing everything. If he is smart he will turn all LEO operations over to private industry and turn NASA's sole attention to deep space.
