RE: Ted cruz to oversee nasa?!
January 13, 2015 at 12:44 pm
(This post was last modified: January 13, 2015 at 12:51 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(January 13, 2015 at 11:03 am)Strider Wrote:(January 13, 2015 at 10:52 am)Chuck Wrote: NASA has been moribund since 1968.I wouldn't go that far. Rover has been a resounding success, and the recent Orion launch was successful. Of course, long term goals aren't going to mean shit without any funding to make it happen. NASA has never been the problem; the problem is politicians who don't see the merit of funding the agency in light of the Republican battle cry of "fiscal responsibility", oft accompanied by a pulsating frontal vein and slightly bulging eyes.
None of what NASA has done since 1968 have been self-sustaining. The shuttle program is really a giant 40 year boondoggle. Technically impressive boondoggle to be sure, but its continued existence after around 1972 was nonetheless justified solely on massive and conscious lies and deceits about its real civilian space potential. It's real initial justification was as a manned military surveillance and bombardment system based on late 1960s technology outlook. That justification evaporated by middle of 1970s with advancement in technology and changes in geopolitics. As a result the shuttle has really been a massive millstone around the neck of American civilian space program, having very modest capabilities for civilian use, but saddled with a basic design and massive weight to cater to military requirements that no longer existed. As a result it manage to do billions of dollars of impressive work for many tens of billions of dollars of investment. Programs such as the international space station, otherwise unjustifiable for the cost, become justified mainly to give the shuttle something that can be sold (falsely) as fitting unique capabilities of the shuttle, thus help hide the deceit that spawned the shuttle.
Since the demise of the shuttle NASA has been set on a path which could not possibly be fully funded. Thus it is being put on a course to further failures.
(January 13, 2015 at 11:39 am)Rhythm Wrote: They need to get back into weapons R/D, then the cash will roll in. Never should have let the shuttle die. Put a cannon/bomb/missile in that big bitch, watch it pick up another 50 years of service from beyond the grave.
Nasa resurrecting the shuttle would be like a murder victim resurrecting his killer so he can be murdered again.
