NASA / Jack Pfaller
GOODBYE, CONSTELLATION... I would go off on a rant about how Obama validated my reason (and much more) for not voting for him in 2008, but I’ll leave it somewhat short. On the 7th anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia accident (which is tomorrow), Obama will not only delay NASA’s moon program by 5 years but outright cancel it. Good job, Obama. I hope you’re a one-term president. *Resists the urge to make political jabs regarding winning an undeserved Noble Peace Price and struggling in passing that health care reform bill*
NASA
But hey, there are some people online (Google 'NASA 2011 budget') that think this is the right way to conduct America’s space program (by encouraging free enterprise by having private companies develop launch vehicles to send NASA astronauts into space), but we’ll see. Obama is proposing a space budget of $100 billion over the next five years...to have NASA loiter in low earth orbit for the next 10-15 years. In the meantime, savor the last 5 space shuttle flights that are scheduled to lift off this year (starting this Sunday with Endeavour’s STS-130 mission, hopefully)...and hope that construction on Russian Soyuz vehicles that will launch our astronauts to the International Space Station (starting next year) is going smoothly. That is all.
