The End Of An Era.

And 6300 jobs

 

I still tighten up at "Go at throttle up." I believe we aree looking at the end of American manned space flight. Good thing the Russians are running a taxi service.

 

End nothing. I blame this mind set on Microsoft for putting a trend line in Excel. Nothing trends forever.

We are definitely doing some cool missions, and there are a lot of planetary and solar projects going on to gather info on the local environment for future space flight. As soon as the economy recovers (and it will, just ignore the trend line), we will get back at it.

It's not manned, but watch for the next Mars rover going up shortly. It is large and nuclear powered. Think of the pictures it will send back. Awesome.

NASA - Mars Science Laboratory, the Next Mars Rover

 

What makes your rocket fly? Funding. No bucks, no Buck Rogers. The Apollo program was cut to pay for Vietnam. Taxes are going to have to increase & spending will have to be cut. NASA just doesn't have the fan base to keep its budget intact.

 

Killed by illogical wars, ignorant spending, and massive military black hole spending.

 

Just what we need......
A nuclear waste debate for a neighboring planet.

 

Remember, any spending cut eliminates jobs. Raising taxes does not.

 

Tax Revenue as a Fraction of GDP | Department of Numbers

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Equity_and_Fiscal_Responsibility_Act_of_1982[/ame]

 

And the start of a better era.

We're not ending manned flight, it's just switching from a government run R&D program to one run by private companies competing in the free market. We're adding space tourism in the near future.
Private space race heats up as US shuttle retires - Yahoo! News

I don't understand why so many Republicans get all sentimental/upset about the end of an over-extended (by decades) and way over-budget government program using obsolete hardware and software, you'd think they'd be rejoicing. The space shuttle program was cool and impressive, but it wasn't economical and it was past due for replacement.

 

You can also say that about the Clinton years


No distinction between Bush and Clinton years, the only thing that interrupted the upward climb was the dot-com bubble bursting.

It might be more interesting to compare revenue to oil prices, and to the stock market and see what drives what.

Did you know - we pay, on average, less in taxes now than 10 years ago? Republican tax cuts, plus various deductions and loopholes have reduced what the average person pays by quite a bit. 40% of Americans don't pay Federal income taxes at all (and you can bet they aren't all poor).

 

While it is true that it is an end of an era... I do not think it is the end of the exploration of space.

Now that .gov is out of it... I believe private enterprise will come up and fill some of the void... and ultimately reach out farther once we have enabled .coms to play in the realm.

There will be some jockeying for position by other nations to try to become the dominant space player... but once private industry sees what they can do and make as a viable space .biz... this end of an era will be a fond memory just as was the era of the steam engine on the unexplored and unexploited American country side.

 

More affirmation that at least one poster on here doesn't know how to read...:blush:

 

Someone still hasn't read or just can't comprehended my links...not surprising!

 

Not surprising at all Dave.

 

The shuttle program was justified as a manned vehicle to the space station. The space station was justified as a destination for our manned space program. A circular logic system that was very expensive and cost some lives.....for exactly what purpose?

Meanwhile, while virtually nobody was paying attention, NASA has the Messenger Space Vehicle providing the first detailed close and sustained observation of the planet Mercury. That's a purpose I understand and support.