U.S. losing its lead in space, experts warn Congress

[unhappycamper]

U.S. losing its lead in space, experts warn Congress
By Robert S. Boyd | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — America's once clear dominance in space is eroding as other nations, including China, Iran and North Korea, step up their activities, a panel of experts told the House subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Thursday.

"Others are catching up fast,'' said Marty Hauser, vice president for Washington operations at the Space Foundation, an advocacy organization headquarters in Colorado Springs. "Of particular note over the past decade is the emergence of China's human spaceflight capabilities.''

Russia now leads the world in space launches. China recently became the third nation, after the United States and Russia, to send its own astronauts out for a spacewalk.

"China is laying the groundwork for a long-term space program with or without us,'' said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington. "We should worry if we're not out there with them.''

China's rocket launch facilities are "state of the art,'' Hauser said.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/79195.html



unhappycamper comment: Of course we've lost the space race. When you're bleeding a trillion dollars a year to the M-I-C, there's not much money left to do anything useful.

[HughBeaumont]

1. The Middle East isn't going to blow ITSELF up, you kno . . . oh, wait . . .

[Echo In Light]

2. LOL

[dusmcj]

3. Ba-DUH. what with Doobya's wagin train tuh thuh stors and a big $16B/yr

why _wouldn't_ we be leading the way ?

functional infrastructure in low earth orbit and an economically viable platform for getting there and back, funded adequately with federal regulation of any private participation. Enjoy. After that we can get Kennedyesque again.

[sudopod]

4. Compared to a 600 billion dollar war budget

NASA is lucky to afford a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide.

[Delphinus]

5. The US is losing

its lead in so many ways - as much as I love the exploration of space, it cannot be our top priority.

[Romulox]

6. Third world countries can't afford space programs. nt

[dusmcj]

12. who cares ? What does that have to do with this topic ? /nt

[Ezlivin]

7. Privatize it!

That's the cry we will hear. Oh, it's already been whispered but as NASA struggles we'll hear the voices more clearly.

Once we are dependent upon private enterprise to loft things to orbit it won't take too long for certain elements in our government to enact the militarization of space; instead of having to gain the approval of Congress they can "KBR" it into place.

Each time we see some function of government "fail" we should be aware that the solution, privatization, will remove the public's input and control. And it will also erect a corporate firewall to prevent any accountability.

[Johonny]

9. huh it's been privatized for years

you missed it by about the beginning of the space program. NASA is not even close to the largest player in the space industry. The USAF launches most launch vehicles in the US and almost all launch vehicles are made by private companies.

[Johonny]

8. human space flight is a sink to a space program

look around the space programs and you'll see certain programs don't waste $ sending people into low Earth orbit and certain countries do (hint Europe doesn't). Only the US and Russia have the space vehicle options that the United States program has. China, Iran and Korea all fly slightly modified versions of Russian Rockets. Iran and Koreas don't even work. The whole concept we are losing the "space race" is wrong. That's now, wait until Space X is up and running.

[tjwash]

10. You expected something different from the country that won't even provide health care to its people?

What does it say about America, when the astrophysicists at NASA, instead of developing new ways to explore space, are instead, busy assuring stupid tea-bagging shitheads that the world isn’t going to end just because the Mayan calendar needs to be flipped?

[liberal_at_heart]

11. we're behind in everything

We're behind in space, education, healthcare, transportation, green energy.