The END…

Atlantis launched from the Cape this morning, putting an end to US manned space activity…

Truly a sad day as we will now have to rely on (and pay BIG dollars) for the Russians to provide transport to the ISS.  


People are saying, “Oh private companies will pick up the slack and we’ll get there cheaper and sooner than if NASA continued.”


Folks, that is #*(&)* impossible…  Private companies CANNOT possibly do the research, development and testing to have a safe program; because they need to make a profit.  IR&D in space is a BILLION dollar a year project, and I don’t see anybody on the horizon with that kind of money/time/backers…


As of today, the USA are now second class citizens in the space race, and sadly I fear it’s not long before we’re second class citizens here on earth too…


It’s obvious the Dems are not about to let any of their sacred cows (entitlements) get cut, and the ONLY thing they can say is tax, Tax, TAX…  In reality, I believe for us to survive and succeed as a country, there are going to have to be significant cuts in a number of major programs, including entitlements, the military budgets (bringing the troops home saves billions a year), and stopping trying to be the world’s police; cutting foreign aid (e.g. stop trying to BUY friendship) and only funding true allies; and there are going to have to be tax raises to pay down the debt before it becomes larger than the GNP of the US (which is projected to happen in about 2020 according to some reports).


I really wonder what kind of world our kids are going to inherit… and I’m afraid the answer is NOT a good one…

Comments

The END… — 22 Comments

  1. Your saying a private company can’t develop a launch platform that is better than the 60s era Russian Soyuz capsule?
    I think you are overly pessimistic on this count.

  2. I’m not so pessimistic. I’m willing to give it twenty years to see.

    Space X has a contract with the US to deliver a cargo to the ISS. I’m curious to how that mission will go. They’re not doing heavy lift, admittedly, but the Soyuz only has them beat by about a ton of lift.

    Maybe I’m crazy but this is one of the very few things I’m actually an optimist about.

  3. Buy more ammo, my friend. when the dems get enough people dependent on the great welfare state that we can’t afford to cover the markers, causing the wheels fall to off the fed.gov and the entitlement checks to stop cashing, it’s not going to be pretty around here.

  4. Well, you know. Obviously, they wouldn’t abandon a program like this without a definitive plan for the next step already in the works. Oh, wait…

  5. May 5, 1961 – July 8, 2011

    Ah, America…
    We once knew your dreams well.

    Q

  6. Jason- I don’t believe they can… Rutan is about the only one, but they’ve been bought by NG, so there won’t be any IR&D money…

    Robert- I hope you’re right and I’m wrong…

    WSF- There isn’t one…

    Murph- I just ordered another 1000 rounds.

    45- yeah… um….

    Quiz- Sigh…

  7. SpaceX has a pretty good shot at getting the cargo contract. Their Falcon 9 can lift a LOT of tonnage to Low Earth Orbit. Their Dragon project will be a real feather in their hat once they get it flying regularly.
    http://www.spacex.com/dragon.php

    My current employer has been in talks with them about refurbishing the Dragon for reuse, as we have the facilities to do it.

  8. I have a friend who has basically bet his fortunes from the tech industry in a private space endeavor. There seem to be a lot of people betting the farm on private space companies. I hope it all pans out.

  9. And of course If over the past 10 years we had spent our money more wisely it wouldn’t be this way. Had we avoided Iraq, not split our attentions and our resources… concentrating instead on Afghanistan, we might be out by now and not stuck in a multi-front quagmire.

    The money we’ve spent in Iraq just to air condition tents would fund NASA for a year. What Obama spent on Lybia in just a few months would pay for several years.

  10. and there are going to have to be tax raises to pay down the debt

    Unfortunately, tax raises do not always (ever?) translate to REVENUE raises, which is what we need. Tax raises have never provided a long term increase in revenues.

    The government needs to get the hell out of the way and let businesses follow Elvis’ motto “TCB” (sorry I couldnt figure out how to make the lightning bolt that should accompany the TCB).

    Growing the economy is the only way to long term revenue growth.

  11. Since government is about control of failure — I like that for more than one reason. Anyway that the Space Program is done the only hope of getting America back into space business is private companies, look at all the government designed aircraft and look at what the private companies gave them to choose from…

    The government will never think big enough.

  12. I’ve got a photo if me standing beside Atlantis on the pad in ’87. Well, sort of next to. As close as they’d let me.

    I’m going to miss her.

  13. drjim/Andy- I truly hope it works out…

    MB- Excellent point…

    Hank- True, but we are so far behind the interest payment curve now, I don’t know how we recover from that F’ed up situation…

    Earl- True…

    Rabbit- Nice!

  14. 1. There is a reason I reload my own ammo–I control production rates and inventory.

    Right now, inventory is good but time to grow it some more.

    2. The sacred cow of entitlements is sacred to ALL elected douche bags. It’s just the the R’s and the D’s have different cows.

    The R’s like to entitle Wall Street and Fortune 500 CEOs who generously donate to them.

    The D’s like to entitle to the non-achieving multiple-generation welfare dependents that continue to breed more registered D-voters, and in turn keep the Democratic party alive.

    Those of us who are not welfare dependent nor in the upper echelons of Wall Street or Fortune 500 businesses are screwed.

    3. I’m sick of being the world’s biggest cop. Played that role during my military service.

    Bring our boys and girls home from Sandland.

    Ten well-placed nukes in Iraq and five well placed nukes in Afghanistan, with a couple of errant “bad pitches” to Pakistan and India will still be shitloads cheaper than supporting all the troops and equipment we have over there right now.

    If those SOBs insist on continuing to live in the Stone Age, then I say we help them out by BOMBING them back into the Stone Age.

    I wish we could bring Israel over here to the U.S., locate them in northern Idaho to run off the Aryan asswipes, then nuke the Middle East until intelligent life on Pluto could see the glow every morning.

    –AOA

  15. “nuke the Middle East until intelligent life on Pluto could see the glow every morning.”

    Best line, ever. 🙂

  16. We’ve been a 2nd class country for a while now. The shutdown of the space program is a symptom, not a cause.