The US Space Retreat: The Shuttle Era Is Over. Will the Next Man on the Moon Be Chinese?

Now that the space shuttle era is over, how will the US service its satellites? Will America have to depend on other nations like Russia and China to get to space in the future? Author and space expert Jerry Pournelle wonders whether America might be losing some strategically important high ground.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• kennedy
• science
• rocket
• moon
• apollo
• Glenn Reynolds
• Instapundit
• Instavision
• PJTV

[urah2525]

It's a Compleat Retreat - Per JFK - Let's go to the moon, Per GWB - Let's go to Mars,

Per Obama - Let's make muslims FEEL BETTER - Some Mission for NASA, an agency used to dealing in real science, not the self- esteem of a people whose science is subsistence agriculture.

[MrConservative608]

WTF! Space travel should be entirely privatized! This is why we will never get rid of our $14 trillion debt: because even us conservatives cannot get rid of unnecessary programs like NASA. Both Glen & Jerry in this video found nothing wrong with there being a government program to be a prize to be won for going to the moon. WTF! Private industry doesn't have their own incentives?!

[Angelomen77]

Hell I'll live on the moon to hell with the 10 bllion dollars I'll go for free

[SuperGuitarman69]

If Space X could build something that can take passengers who have never been to outer space the opportunity to go? Then there is your market... And, people will for the first time ever not have to pass the "ok" by government to get to experience space... Now tell me again how turning it over would be bad? Hell a private company would have a T ball tournament for kiddies on the moon in 10 years.. Government hates being embarrassed. Although NASA was a good program, private should get a shot.

[south6bt]

What people have to realize is the US is about to default. We're talking about people who live next door to you, people who may be your family or friends going without money in August. They can't pay their rent, they can't pay their debts and it is clear that private entities fail to have compassion when it comes to money. NASA is literally only one of many things that money has to be taken from. The space program is unimportant when it comes to real people being put on the streets.

[MrConservative608]

@meteor4163 NASA is great. They accomplished a lot and they can exist in the private sector. You probably don't even realize that there are private companies that want to go the moon.

h t t p : / / w w w . s p a c e x . c o m /

Invest money in that if you want to go to the moon, otherwise go back to Russia, commie!

[meteor4163]

@MrConservative608 I can't get that through my thick skull, sorry man. Without NASA, how with private funding would any of this have been done by now:

Send 12 men to the moon. Build the space shuttles. Send a large array of satellites such as Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, and the rovers to land on mars to explore.

It's hard to list everything. NASA is far from being unnecessary IMO.

[MrConservative608]

@meteor4163 How come you cannot get it through your thick skull that research bodies can exist without government funding?

This is exactly like liberals demanding that government pay to subsidize this or that without any idea that maybe they can invest in this or that outside of government funding. You want a high speed train? INVEST IN ONE!!!

[meteor4163]

@MrConservative608 Nasa is literally the "brain" part of the human civilization and all worldwide scientists agree on that.

[Mauser712]

Needs "Jerry Pournelle" in the tags.

[Gkorman555]

Government lives to make more government. They don't care about wise spending, because it's not their money. I love the idea of NASA. I grow up in our space age, but I've always thought it was too slow and cost too much. How much further would we be if you let the private sector actually free to develop an actual industry?

[MrConservative608]

@kingz8ter Good. So put your own money towards it and leave mine alone. If it is really profitable to go to the moon then the private sector will have no trouble coming up with their own money because there is already a great private incentive.

If we don't cut at least $1.15 trillion from our annual budget, we will never get out of our $14 trillion debt. If even us conservatives can't change direction in Washington, D.C., I think we will have states secede from the union!