Neil Armstrong Blasts Obama’s Space Plan

[unhappycamper]

Neil Armstrong Blasts Obama’s Space Plan
April 14, 2010
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON -- Apollo 11 hero Neil Armstrong Tuesday lashed out at President Barack Obama's decision to axe NASA plans to return to the Moon, describing the move as "devastating" to the US space program.

Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, was one of three former astronauts who signed an open letter to Obama ahead of his visit to Florida on Thursday where he will deliver a space policy speech.

Budget plans unveiled two months ago proposed scrapping the Constellation program, which was developing a new rocket to take Americans back to the moon; and giving private industry the role of building the space vehicles to take humans to the International Space Station (ISS).

However Armstrong and fellow Apollo program commanders James Lovell and Eugene Cernan bemoaned the proposals for the US space effort in a letter released to NBC News on Tuesday.

Armstrong, Lovell and Cernan said that while some of Obama's NASA budget proposals had "merit," the decision to cancel the Constellation program, the Ares 1 and Ares V rockets and the Orion spacecraft, was "devastating."



unhappycamper comment: I will miss the Hubble telescope when it falls into the ocean because We The People no longer have the ability so send men into space.
p.s. You Guys should scrape all the Mars stuff. We got no bucks here so we ain't going.

[babylonsister]

1. And Buzz Aldrin applauds it. Go figure...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x269126

[elocs]

2. Armstrong only had 1 historic line and he couldn't get that right.

The truth is that there are things in this country that are more important than the space program. I sat on the gymn floor when I was in grade school as we watched those first launches on a b&w tv, but to be honest I personally don't give a shit anymore.

[MajorChode]

5. I always thought of him as a bit of a bigot

I liked him better when he just shut the fuck up.

[MajorChode]

3. Armstrong finally admitted the moon landings were a hoax

http://www.theonion.com/articles/conspiracy-theorist-convinces-neil-armstrong-moon,2796/

[KharmaTrain]

4. No Bucks No Buck Rogers...

I'm also of the generation that woke up at sunrise (and before) to watch Walter Cronkite and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches. I'd like to see man travel to Mars in the future, but the cold reality is this country is broke. It's not as though NASA or JPL will be shut down...far from it...there are many ongoing unmanned missions and programs that are providing lots of valuable science. A shame we can keep shooting people up in rockets, but the question has long been asked "is this trip necessary".

There are other ways to get people into space...several private ventures have progressed and this may be the best answer to continue a manned program.

Chalk this as another byproduct of the boooosh regime...it's wars that were "off the books", it's total corupt management of the economy that allowed the bubbles and the collapse and the ongoing outsourcing of wealth and jobs that destroyed the tax base. But as always, it's President Obama whose at fault.

[DrDan]

6. get the corporations involved in space transport - that's exactly what we need

we need to get the profit-driven corporations involved to get-us/keep-us on track with the space program.

Nothing breeds success like a little profit (or a lot).

[Dr.Phool]

8. A new career for Don Blankenship?

[DrDan]

9. yep - those astronauts know the risk - its their own darned fault if anything happens

just the type of profit-driven attitude that will give us limitless success.

The corps can help us drive out unnecessary and expensive regulation. How many times do you need to test those pesky o-rings.

[MadHound]

7. Always sad to see a country pull back from its dream,

Especially when those dreams are so close to becoming reality.