Reported Obama Plan Would Privatize Manned Launches 450
couchslug writes with this excerpt from the not-yet-paywalled New York Times: "President Obama will end NASA's return mission to the moon and turn to private companies to launch astronauts into space when he unveils his budget request to Congress next week, an administration official said Thursday. The shift would 'put NASA on a more sustainable and ambitious path to the future' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the changes have angered some members of Congress, particularly from Texas, the location of the Johnson Space Center, and Florida, the location of the Kennedy Space Center. 'My biggest fear is that this amounts to a slow death of our nation's human space flight program,' Representative Bill Posey, Republican of Florida, said in a statement." If true, this won't please the federal panel that recommended against just such privatization.
Damn SOCIALISM (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Beware of the spin. (Score:4, Funny)
read it and make up your own mind.
What are you, some kind of commie? This is America! We think what our favorite cable news pundit tells us to think! That's how democracy works!
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:3, Funny)
BEGIN (partisanBickering) (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone else see the irony in two Republican congressmen complaining about the privatization of space flight?
Fly Ryanair . . . to the Moon! (Score:5, Funny)
No check-in. You have to schlep all your moonwalk gear yourself to the launch vehicle: "All you can carry." This cuts down on excess weight, saving fuel costs. Do you really need that extra oxygen tank?
A glass of Tang? "That will be 10€, sir."
Online Gambling! Your now have no incentive to return safely to the Earth . . . you are now bankrupt.
. . . and when you do get back, they lost your luggage filled with priceless moon rocks . . .
"I'm sorry, sir, your baggage was inadvertently placed on one of our flights to Mars. We should have it back for you in a couple of years time.
Re:BEGIN (partisanBickering) (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone else see the irony in two Republican congressmen complaining about the privatization of space flight?
They're just following the first rule of politics - no government spending is wasteful if it occurs in your district.
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:4, Funny)
During the election, about 95% of African-Americans voted for Barack Hussein Obama due solely to the color of his skin.
And 95% of McCain voters voted for McCain due solely to the color of his neck.
Re:Fly Ryanair . . . to the Moon! (Score:5, Funny)
Great - return flight to the Moon $50 (excluding optional $5,000,000,000 life-support surcharge).
Of course, they say Moon, but actually its to the new state-of-the-art spaceport at L1, only a short bus ride away from the Moon. Well, they say new state-of-the-art spaceport... its actually an abandoned Apollo third stage with a Starbucks and a chemical toilet...
Re:Rant incoming... (Score:1, Funny)
Let my guess? (html formatted?)
carp3_noct3m
carp3_noct3m writes:
Sounds like some bigwigs with enough lobbying power in DC decided they wanted to rape the USA for more money.
I mean, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the perfect models for contracting to civilians agencies, who take a 110 million dollar contract, and subcontract it, paying the subcontractors about 10% and they get to pocket the rest. Of course with such public program, this could never happen you say. All it takes is some byzantine law that says they arent required to disclose budgets and suddenly we have no idea where the money goes (besides the pockets of corrupt politicians and greedy C level officers)
They say in TFA they wan't to increase "entrepreneurial interests" WTF. I'm so sick and tired of washington politics it makes me so disappointed in my country.
With the public fighting over partisanship ("Obama's the antichrist","Bush done it") people need to wake up and realize that the problem is greed for money and power.
Both fucking parties are just as at fault for everything that is wrong with the USA right now.
First step to a better America IMO is to completely stop the ability for corporations to make donations to any type of political party or anyone with political affiliation. Lobbying should be an intellectual exercise, not a who can buy off who exercise. This would proportionately seem to put more power back in the people hands, at least as a start.
Second? American people need to start using their brains. Stop watching 5 hours of TV a day and read a good non-fiction book about the middle east, american politics, anything to expand your mind. Learn how to stop being so damn religious and start thinking rationally and objectively (all of these things are also parts of basic education, something which is also failing horribly) Washington needs to stop using their own heads and start listening to Think Tanks and people with practical experience equally.
Have accountability in everything. The sad part? It will more than likely never happen. Its a prisoners dilemma sort of situation. Most of use know the government and corporations are horribly corrupt and inefficient, they screw us over all the time. So what is your response? "Well all I can do is look out for me and my family" which is the same thought process the corrupts people have.
Everyone (with exceptions of course, comon, I'm making a bunch a generalizations to get my point across) has this attitude and it never changes.
If you were that C level person, what would you do?
Even if you think you would do the right thing, studies show that by nature to higher you get the more likely you are to be stricter about moral issues on other people but more lax on them with yourself.
The problem is that it seems to be human nature. Send 50 people to colonize a new earth duplicate planet, and within months I guarantee there would be thievery, repression, greed ect. Yep, pretty much humanity seems to be like a virus, and one of these millennium the universe is likely to swallow us whole and try and start over.
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will reformat so that others will be able to agree with me."
First Class has wine and an in-flight meal... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's not spin, it's Obama's personal priorities (Score:2, Funny)
> Obama has never liked the space program
Perhaps he's a Gil Scott-Heron fan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_on_the_Moon [wikipedia.org]
No public option then (Score:1, Funny)
THIS JUST IN: (Score:1, Funny)
Obama concedes that government doesn't have all the answers to mankind's problems, and announces his switch to Libertarianism!
Re:Beware of the spin. (Score:3, Funny)
I would type up a well worded and thought rebuttal, but FUCK IT, WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
Re:It's not spin, it's Obama's personal priorities (Score:4, Funny)
Tang and Velcro what more can you ask for?
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:3, Funny)
Don't forget, dear lefty , that the red on the neck is an indicator of working in the sun to grow the food you eat, build the house you live in and load the truck that brings the britches on your butt. Now quit smokin' pot, pull up your pants and put a belt on and get back to class.
Re:A sound plan (Score:3, Funny)
With a for-profit corporation, one fatal accident and you are finished, if not from the legal costs of the inevitable lawsuits, then from the loss of market share in what will most likely be a rather limited market.
I guess that's why we don't have any airlines. After the first plane crash, they all went under.