— Donald

*All* physics research has been centered at Fermi Lab for the last 30 years???

> With other countries notably India and China looking at manned space efforts I don’t
> think this country can afford not to persuse it.

Reality check. India has sent one astronaut into space, and that was 20 years ago. China’s flight rate is virtually nonexistant.

> Those of you who post here about private industry filling the gap just don’t grasp the fact to do anything
> beyond sub orbital “Barn Storming” and limited orbital operations still requires a national budget
> not a few billionairs getting together .

So, you resort to namecalling. Those “limited” operations are more than anything NASA plans to do in the next 40 years.

Once again, VSEers diss any human spaceflight program that goes beyond what Apollo did 40 years ago.

Incorrect. Clinton never exercised a veto for ISS.

This is not a very liberal congress comming in, its quite conservative. Its unlikely the congress would abandoned the VSE , there is a lot of support for it in congress. There may be an attempt to shift more monies to science programs but completing the station and time pressue required to meet a 2010 deadline for retiring the shuttle may make that difficult.

Bart Gordon who is the likely chairman of the science committee is a strong supporter of manned space flight.
There will be a lot more questions but the programs will most likely continue.

I think the democrats are going to be very careful when it comes to shifting monies and priorities. First of all they may have a majority but its not that big especially in the senate. Secondly they really are focused on 2008.

Its going to be very interesting and sad in 2007 when the LHC comes on line at cern, and the impact of budget decisions from a previous democratic congress is felt when the center of all physics reseach shifts for the first time in 30 years from Fermi Lab in the US to Cern in Europe Largely because of the decision to not build the super collider and the failure of the Clinton Administration to invest in any high energy physics research. Basically that is another loss of a key area of reseach and industry for this country.

With other countries notably India and China looking at manned space efforts I don’t think this country can afford not to persuse it.

Those of you who post here about private industry filling the gap just don’t grasp the fact to do anything beyond sub orbital “Barn Storming” and limited orbital operations still requires a national budget not a few billionairs getting together .

Plus, just wait for the safety-fetishists to strangle in the crib private spaceflight.

From the Denver Post (10/31/06) – Udall would likely shift the tenor of a debate over funding for space exploration vesus research on such subjects as climate change, pollution and severe-weather patterns.

Udall wants to ensure that the space program isn’t funded at the expense of earth sciences, spokesman Lawrence Pacheco said.

Exactly my point. And this is driven by the Griffin Interpretation of VSE, which is basically exploration viewed through the lens of Apollo…a big mistake in my opinion.

Of course, NASA is cutting science and technology research so they can develop new launch vehicles.

A point Donald continues to miss in fixed belief that we “need” VSE.

— Donald