(Via Insty)
The problem:
The problem was that after the ISS was complete, without the Shuttle, the U.S. would have no capability to reach it, and there would be a “gap” in capability until some sort of replacement was developed. At the time of the announcement, the “Crew Exploration Vehicle” (CEV) was the proposed means, but it wasn’t expected to be ready until 2014, resulting in a “gap” of at least three years, and probably longer. When Mike Griffin replaced Sean O’Keefe in 2005, he rolled out a concept called Constellation, which included the CEV, renamed at that time Orion. It also included a new rocket for it, that had not been anticipated in the original Bush plan, called Ares I, despite the fact that existing rockets, such as the Atlas V or Delta IV, could have done the job. Griffin even originally claimed that his plan would reduce the gap, being ready by 2011.
Unfortunately, the design chosen was flawed, and ran into technical difficulties immediately, increasing its costs and stretching its schedule. Because there had not originally been plans for a new launcher, there wasn’t sufficient budget to support it, and other budgets, in science and technology, and the hardware actually needed to get back to the moon, were raided to feed the rocket disaster. The schedule was slipping more than a year per year, and by 2009, when the Augustine Committee was convened to evaluate the situation, it moved rightward to 2017, with only a low probability of hitting that operational date.
[…]
Next year, it will be a full decade since Columbia was lost. And judging by the pathetic state of space policy discussion we’ve seen over the past few days, with Mitt Romney hiring Mike Griffin, the man who caused this policy disaster, to advise him, it’s likely that we’ll still be floundering and earth bound, despite the billions we’ve spent and continue to spend.
The Solution:
The United States of America needs to get the hell OUT of the space business! Period! End of Discussion. It has been proven time and time again that NASA is nothing more than a wasteful, hazardous, big Government bureaucracy. Let private companies do the research, the development and the deployment. The question is this; how many more astronauts are going to have to be killed, before we realize that the United States Government is not good at space exploration?
This is the entire problem with Neoconservatives or big Government Conservatives; they rail against Big Government, but when it comes to programs like space exploration — they are all for it. Wake up guys! Big Government is Big Government! Either kill the space program and let private companies do the job or stop calling yourself small Government advocates, because you look like absolute hypocrites. This is not some off-the-wall Ron Paul sounding stuff either. It is simply common sense, something that is sorely lacking in the world of politics and Government today.
It is time that Republican and Conservatives started talking and really acting like that which they claim to be. Either we believe in small Government or we don’t. Pick a position please. We do not have the money to be the leader in space exploration anymore. We need to fully privatize that industry. The Russians are no longer a threat to our society, the cold war is over, finally. So, why do we care what the Russians do?
This is the stuff here, that separates me from the rest of the “right” in the Blogosphere. The rest of these guys believe in small Government, except when it comes to space programs. History proves that Government space programs are dangerously misguided; Challenger, Columbia, Apollo — all of them.
We need to stop it, before more people are killed.