WSJ
Orlando Sentinel
NYT
Its looking like Obama is planning on canceling the Ares program. Almost a shame, but its probably for the better, but only if Obama has a better plan, and based on the above, it doesn't look like he has one. Instead, our main path to space will be with the commercial space industry.
Commercial space flight. SpaceShipOne does not count, it can't quite make it to space for a long period of time. SpaceX is probably the front runner in the commercial space flight industry. They already have a contract to resupply the International Space Station once the shuttle is retired, and they are the only commercial company to successfully launch a rocket into space using only private funds. In fact, they are prepping to test their heavy lift rocket, Falcon 9, and its reusable spacecraft, Dragon, sometime this year. Upon successful completion of the test flight, Falcon 9 and Dragon will be the craft that resupply the ISS. Another company is Orbital Sciences Corporation. They have one rocket that is being used to transport stuff to space, and the are working on another, larger rocket.
All this is cool and stuff, but it is not the inspirational space exploration that makes kids want to become astronauts and study math and science. But what are the realistic options? Continue with the Ares program? As cool as Ares is, I don't think it was the right option to pursue. It is just an update of technology that has existed since the 60s/70s. It's a shame that Ares was the course we took for NASA, and now it looks like the whole program will be canceled. A waste of time and money, but you can't change the past.
So the future, whats up with that? I fully support the commercial space flight industry. For near Earth stuff commercial space flight is perfect. But getting beyond near earth orbit? For that we need NASA. NASA needs a well developed plan for returning the US to the moon. We are already doing a lot of prep work for that, with LCROSS and the LRO missions. Setting up a moon base should be a goal of NASA's. It will be expensive, prohibitively so, which is why it needs to be done by NASA. To me that is the point of the organization: to spend money on things that are far to expensive for the commercial space industry to pay for. Like going to the moon. Or Mars.
How cool would going to Mars be? Obama, take us to Mars. It only took the Apollo program eight years to get us to the moon. Lets get on this, don't make NASA useless, only doing things NOAA and the Air Force can do now.
Orlando Sentinel
NYT
Its looking like Obama is planning on canceling the Ares program. Almost a shame, but its probably for the better, but only if Obama has a better plan, and based on the above, it doesn't look like he has one. Instead, our main path to space will be with the commercial space industry.
Commercial space flight. SpaceShipOne does not count, it can't quite make it to space for a long period of time. SpaceX is probably the front runner in the commercial space flight industry. They already have a contract to resupply the International Space Station once the shuttle is retired, and they are the only commercial company to successfully launch a rocket into space using only private funds. In fact, they are prepping to test their heavy lift rocket, Falcon 9, and its reusable spacecraft, Dragon, sometime this year. Upon successful completion of the test flight, Falcon 9 and Dragon will be the craft that resupply the ISS. Another company is Orbital Sciences Corporation. They have one rocket that is being used to transport stuff to space, and the are working on another, larger rocket.
All this is cool and stuff, but it is not the inspirational space exploration that makes kids want to become astronauts and study math and science. But what are the realistic options? Continue with the Ares program? As cool as Ares is, I don't think it was the right option to pursue. It is just an update of technology that has existed since the 60s/70s. It's a shame that Ares was the course we took for NASA, and now it looks like the whole program will be canceled. A waste of time and money, but you can't change the past.
So the future, whats up with that? I fully support the commercial space flight industry. For near Earth stuff commercial space flight is perfect. But getting beyond near earth orbit? For that we need NASA. NASA needs a well developed plan for returning the US to the moon. We are already doing a lot of prep work for that, with LCROSS and the LRO missions. Setting up a moon base should be a goal of NASA's. It will be expensive, prohibitively so, which is why it needs to be done by NASA. To me that is the point of the organization: to spend money on things that are far to expensive for the commercial space industry to pay for. Like going to the moon. Or Mars.
How cool would going to Mars be? Obama, take us to Mars. It only took the Apollo program eight years to get us to the moon. Lets get on this, don't make NASA useless, only doing things NOAA and the Air Force can do now.
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