Shrubya has done exactly ONE (and I mean ONE) thing right...

[Rosco T.]

... but he done it for the wrong reason.

I'm a child of the 60's. I grew up with names like Glenn, Shepard, Grissom, Places like Goldstone, Canberra, Woomera filled my head and I dreamt of Redstone's, Titan's, Saturn's, Apollo's and Gemini's. I saw a pride in this country, and a desire to learn, grow and innovate that moved thru the 70's and the first part of the 80's. Then I saw it all start to fade and whither with people like Proxmire tearing down what brave and brilliant men and women built.

Yeah, I support the SPACE program, but not what we have today. NASA has become a bloated and politicized bunch worse than any bureaucratic beast ever created. The innovation that pushed us forward is long gone from them. No more of the 'we can do it' attitude to a 'why bother unless we can get a bundle of cash'.

Now, before you jump my case, there's a helluva lot around you that you wouldn't have without the early research. Like what you're reading this on. Or the INTERNET to connect to it. Or that PDA in your pocket, the pocket player you listen to music on. Or the NiMh batteries in them. There wouldn't have even been then basic research on Fuel Cell's that one day (with a competent administration) may rid us of the need for oil...

That's why when Shrubya talked about a revitalizing of the SPACE program, I got excited. Here was a chance to bring back innovation, to bring back advancement. To get back to the Moon or on to Mars is going to take new power sources, new construction techniques, new communication.. things that WILL get back to the public.

I even saw it as a chance to actually put some growth in the economy. You can dig it out yourself if you disbelieve, bit during the Apollo program, every $1 that was spend circulated Thur the economy 14 times. Spend a million, put 14 million of growth in the economy (salaries, equipment, research, education, etc.).

It was also a time to dream, a time to say 'why not?' instead of 'why?'.

I won't boar people with all the good things that COULD come out of starting again from research with a PURPOSE. But it's there..

Then it was painfully obvious that he was using this as a distraction, but it was a distraction that could do good. If he started the ball rolling, Kerry could pick up the ball and make it a slam dunk.

Take the pittance beginnings and make it a goal, part of that goal being an end to the oil-based economy. Hydrogen is one of the most plentiful elements out there... so make the hardware HERE that can extract it/use it in the most efficient way. Same for SOLAR. Right now the best solar cells only are around 20% efficient, there is research now that could take that to 60% or better. Unfunded research that was cut off by Shrubya. Same for wind, higher efficiency mills/generators that could take advantage of even a light breeze on a Martian hillside...imagine what it could do in a wind farm in the midwest.

In a way, I wish that Shrubya's programs could get approved... so Kerry could make them into what they SHOULD be..

A real path to the future... not a distraction of the past.

(donning fire-retardant suit)

[thebigidea]

1. you honestly think Bush cares? Or that he was serious?

Notice how that whole "space" initiative kinda died out. He didn't even make a big announcement at the last SOTU.

The only thing about space that the Cheney crowd is interested in is the "flying orbital death station" sci fi part.

[Rosco T.]

2. I never said that...

.. I said it was a distraction. I just wish that it could be turned on him. ie. "Call the bluff".. so someone else could make it into something meaningful..

[Webster Green]

3. Yeah, but trying to imitate Kennedy's space program ain't it.......

The no-call list.......thats it!

[rebel_liberal]

4. Strongly Doubt that there was much positive motive........

for shrub*.... simply an attempt to pander to the "little astronaut" in all of us. Oh.... and what about the military using the space program to fill our skies with orbiting "star wars" junk.

It is sad, but true. Alas, even when one tries to find a saving act, (just one act this man has done for the simple good of it) he/she finds nothing.

Let's here it for our Great Pandering Leader!

[Nightjock]

5. Thanks Rosco

I have always realized that our lives were vastly improved because of our past space programs. And with your informative, heartfelt post- I can better debate with people that don't realize we would get back SO much from a restored NASA with dedicated folks!

I recently bought that "Earth to the Moon" mini series on dvd (it was on HBO a while back.)
I highly recommend it to you or anyone who may not have seen it.

[Rosco T.]

6. "From the Earth to the Moon"

Indeed.. anyone that watches that and NOT be choked up and in awe and respect and admiration of those men and women... they have no soul...

Kennedy's speech at Rice University (September 12, 1962) is what really kicked off the program... and it's as right, as important and as meaningful today as it was then... (and I believe you'll find then entire speech on the DVD set).

http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/jfkslide.asf

"Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. "

If only we could ignore the messenger this time (Shrubya) and take the goal to heart.

[Cleita]

7. I too was excited about the space program of the sixties.

Up to then innovation had come from inventions for war. Here we had innovation and it was peaceful. I hate what NASA has become too and yearn for the good old days of space exploration. Instead we are spiraling into another decade of war and terrorism. War isn't even a boost to the economy anymore. It just lines the pockets of the greedy with gold at the expense of the blood and now souls of our young people.