NASA continues to stall on heavy-lift rocket
It ain’t ever happening: NASA continues to stall on their final design for Congress’s mandated heavy-lift rocket.
No one should be surprised by this. Obama has never wanted NASA to build this rocket, when it was Constellation and now when it is the program-formerly-called-Constellation. Moreover, Congress hasn’t given NASA enough money or time to do it anyway. Better the program die and the money is used for something else, or cut entirely in order to reduce the crushing federal debt.
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It ain’t ever happening: NASA continues to stall on their final design for Congress’s mandated heavy-lift rocket.
No one should be surprised by this. Obama has never wanted NASA to build this rocket, when it was Constellation and now when it is the program-formerly-called-Constellation. Moreover, Congress hasn’t given NASA enough money or time to do it anyway. Better the program die and the money is used for something else, or cut entirely in order to reduce the crushing federal debt.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
“No one should be surprised by this. Obama has never wanted NASA to build this rocket, when it was Constellation and now when it is the program-formerly-called-Constellation. Moreover, Congress hasn’t given NASA enough money or time to do it anyway. Better the program die and the money is used for something else, or cut entirely in order to reduce the crushing federal debt.”
That’s right more attempted extra-legal stalling to try to avoid following the laws that Obama signed. And you love it. Since I am sure you are a very consistent and honorable type, you will (of course) cheer some future President on when their administration uses similar tactics to try to avoid obeying laws of which you approve.
Sure you will. :)
Joe2:
You are making many incorrect assumptions about where I stand on this. I might want the money for Constellation cut from the budget, but in no way am I approving Obama’s extra-legal stalling. In fact, I find it downright despicable, and have stated so numerous times on this website. See for example these posts: http://behindtheblack.com/?s=inconvenient+thing
I see by the links that you posted that you have disagreed with what you have called the Administrations “extra-legal stalling” on other subjects. None of those were related to this topic. Are you agreeing that this particular Administration action is extra-legal stalling?
Didn’t you read my previous post? I said that the Obama administration’s stalling on the program-formerly-called-Constellation is illegal in no uncertain terms. If Congress demands they try to build the heavy-lift rocket, the administration is required by law to do so.
The real problem is that Congress should not be demanding that this rocket be built. It is a waste of money and nothing more than pork. See: http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/this-nasa-bill-is-nothing-more-than-pork
“I said that the Obama administration’s stalling on the program-formerly-called-Constellation is illegal in no uncertain terms.”
Must have missed the “previous post” you refer to. Never the less, however much we may disagree on space policy (and that disagreement appears to be considerable), we have nothing to argue about on this particular point. If the Administration continues to ‘stonewall’ it is going to be interesting (in the sense of the old Chinese Curse “may you live in interesting times”) to see how it turns out.
RZ, I kind of agree with you – don’t like the fact funds were cut but if NASA can’t do it right anyway, might as well spend the money more wisely. And like you, I’m beginning to think the private sector (SpaceX, etc.) can do it better, cheaper & quicker. I think the REAL crime here is that Obama left us with no plan at all – he obviously isn’t really very interested in space exploration – funds for that would cut too deeply into his social re-engineering of the country. So we’re left with an almost non-existant space prgram – what are we doing? What are the plans? What’s the next big adventure? Also think it was not a good idea to shut down the shuttle program until we had something to replace it. Buying rides on Soyuz at exorbitant prices isn’t a plan…