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Perry and other lawmakers blast Obama over shuttle retirement

Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as other lawmakers from Congress, blasted Obama today over the shuttle retirement.

Bah. Perry claims to be a so-called small government conservative, yet he wants the government to spend a fortune to build and run the space program. Meanwhile, Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Kate Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) were around in Congress when President George Bush announced the shuttle’s retirement seven years ago. Their effort since then to fund pork through NASA and thus have NASA build a giant new rocket system, either Constellation or its new Congressionally-designed replacement, has been a disaster. Right now it would be better, and far cheaper, if they stopped fighting the new commercial space companies and instead get behind them, especially since the Obama administration itself has done a very poor job of selling this new industry.

A little support from Congress could go a long way to not only reinvigorating the aerospace industry, it could speed our country’s return to manned space, with multiple competing companies.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Gary Warburton

    The thing that amazes me is that no scientist has asked for this waste of money, there are no missions in the records that are waiting to be developed for it, yet with the economy in dire straits these politicians still insist on building it. It just shows you how little they really care about the economy. The shame is that really exciting projects like the James Web telescope are likely to be cancelled through the lack Nasa dollars. The irony of the whole thing is that this monstrosity won`t do what it`s supposed to do, It can`t be used for deep space. To go to deep you need space one needs space, lots of it. Your dreaming in technicolor if you think you can send astronauts in a sweaty capsule the size of your clothes closet on nine month trip to Mars. It`s time to get real. Nautilus-X is the only way you could possibly go to Mars. Its a true spaceship complete with artificial gravity. With a little British ingenuity it could be equiped with a electronic radiation shield.
    You tell me how we can stop this drive to waste money on a useless SLS.

  • Joe2

    You have come a long way. Defending Obama Space Policy against actual conservatives (complete with name calling). Perry has actually run a large state based on those principals and he is a ‘so-called small government conservative”. Exactly what have you ever done?

    I look forward to your first joint press conference with George Soros.

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