$2.5 Billion for NASA Shuttle Fleet

[Reason]

It has been planned for many years now for the Space Shuttle's to be retired in 2010.

A new program called Project Constellation will be in the works supposedly to create a new type of vehicle.

In the mean time we would be reliant upon Russia for any trips to the space station.

HOWEVER

Breaking news is that...

Budget Authorizes $2.5 Billion for NASA Shuttle Fleet

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124104302283670451.html

[..PAUL4PRES..]

THey need to spend 100 times that. Get me the hell off this planet!!!!

[Reason]

THey need to spend 100 times that. Get me the hell off this planet!!!!

:D

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

Yea, stupidity at its finest. The Orbiter Vehicle series of shuttles as they exists now are based on technology that is over 40 years old (essentially the outgrowth of the Apollo program). We shouldn't have gone to the Moon to begin with as it was a useless and wasteful 'beat the Russians' con game. I can't help but think that if we had relied on a Free Market approach, we would already be there in great numbers and our presence in orbit would be nearly unopposed. Many of the medical advances that have come about (MRI, Catscan etc) would still be with us as natural outgrowths of spin-off technology and would likely have been cheaper.

Now, however, its mostly the US Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office's playground. Thats why the Shuttles are being given a Service Life Extension Program to keep them going. NASA should be scrapped and all of its assets sold off to private sector interests that want to make the Space Race into something real instead of a sideshow to be trotted out for 'patriotism'. This is 2.5 billion that is going to be wasted.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Of the Trillions of dollars the Obama administration is wasting, this is the first line item I've seen that I approve of as a good use for my tax dollars.

-t

[muh_roads]

It is all a waste of money, including this.

[fisharmor]

I dunno.... $10 million got the first civilian into space in a private competition. I don't know how much it cost to put Yuri Gagarin in space, but considering there were two superpowers at work, it has to be WAY more than $10 million when adjusted for inflation.

I don't remember the name of the prize for making it to the moon but it was $30 million....
Even if we chopped $2.5B into $50 million prize chunks, that's still FIFTY prizes to award.
Seems to me that with fifty different races to win money in 50 different categories, we'd end up with some pretty clever alternatives.

Of course, I don't support that idea... I just wanted to demonstrate exactly how far $2.5 billion gets you if it's not government money we're talking about.

[JoshLowry]

I dunno.... $10 million got the first civilian into space in a private competition. I don't know how much it cost to put Yuri Gagarin in space, but considering there were two superpowers at work, it has to be WAY more than $10 million when adjusted for inflation.

I don't remember the name of the prize for making it to the moon but it was $30 million....
Even if we chopped $2.5B into $50 million prize chunks, that's still FIFTY prizes to award.
Seems to me that with fifty different races to win money in 50 different categories, we'd end up with some pretty clever alternatives.

Of course, I don't support that idea... I just wanted to demonstrate exactly how far $2.5 billion gets you if it's not government money we're talking about.

Much better idea than giving it all to NASA.

[He Who Pawns]

IMO, NASA is one of the very few federal programs doing anything worthwhile. To me, space exploration is a matter of national security and human survival. We need to get off this rock before a plague or some other type of armageddon wipes us out as a species. If it were up to me, the entire "stimulus" of trillions of dollars would have gone to NASA and competitive X Prize types of programs.

1 star.

[silverhawks]

THey need to spend 100 times that. Get me the hell off this planet!!!!

No, get THEM the hell off this planet ;)

They can go found FascistDictatorWorld for all I care. This world is ours; and while I agree with He Who Pawns that we need to expand in order to survive, we need to have a free human race to do that.