About article that posted Vladislav, its related to interplanet space trips, so there is no need to worry about IIS.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/ap-080514-russa-europe-spaceship.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/08/AR2008050801308.html?referrer=digg WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia have expelled five diplomats and military attaches from each other’s countries in moves reminiscent of the tit-for-tat exchanges of the Cold War-era, U.S. officials said Thursday.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1738805,00.html

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union 18 years ago, Russia rolled out heavy armor and missiles on Red Square in Moscow and central avenues of major Russian cities from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

The procession of firepower was designed to show that Putin’s eight years as president has revived Russia’s mighty Armed Forces, and with it Russia’s national pride. “The victors gave us great reason to believe in our national strength, self-reliance and freedom,” new Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said in his V-Day address. His thinly veiled comparison of the Nazi aggression 63 years ago with NATO’s eastward expansion today echoed a favorite Kremlin propaganda theme for whipping up Russia’s resurgent nationalism.

More and more its looking like the Spaceflight Gap and our dependence on Soyuz will be a very bad idea politicaly. As is New Space’s partnership with Russia.

We currently face an approaching shortage of engineers in this country, who knows if an ambitious space program will inspire students to study, but compared to amount our economy will lose if we cannot fill the positions of retiring engineers, i’d say its not so bad.

Worse case scenario we stick some guys on the Moon, spread the seed of humanity, and open up a vast supply of resources that can be put into space 22 times easier than similar resources on Earth. I’m pretty sure doing so won’t deter people from studying math, science, and engineering.

No, it doesn’t fade for everyone. I wouldn’t be posting here if it did. But other interests, hormones, responsibilities, and monetary realities intrude and interest in space fades for most people (if it wasn’t fleeting in the first place).

“In my opinion a robust space program (as seen after Apollo)”

But was it the indirect inspiration that drew many tens of thousands of individuals to the field? Or the billions and billions of dollars flowing into the civil space program, not to mention the millions and millions of dollars in post-Sputnik sci/eng/math scholarships?

We have to be careful with our cause-and-effect.

FWIW…

No, only the cargo version. The first operational Orion builds are still required to deliver six astronauts to ISS.

If they ever get that far… FWIW…

Oh I imagine with enough billions of dollars NASA could even fly a brick. It isnt a question of if it will work, just a question how much and how long TO make it work.

I thought NASA has already dropped the ISS manned and cargo version of Orion from development? So unless they drop not only the “moon mars and beyond from the VSE, the stick AND this version of Orion I would think that long term, regardless of administration, the moon stays on the table?

I don’t have numbers or evidence, but I can tell you that student space organizations across the country are growing, and growing quickly. Many of us, myself included, plan to develop and explore space with or without the government. That being said however, there is much that must be done by NASA before private companies can take over entirely.

And I like the idea of scholarships, but NASA already does that (again I don’t have specific numbers) but through the GSRP program as well as Space Grant Consortium in ever state there are scholarships and funding for space related studies (just to name a couple).

In my opinion a robust space program (as seen after Apollo) can do a lot more for education and inspiration than adding more standardized tests.

It might be interesting, but it won’t happen. Much of that NASA money spent on “education” is actually earmarked money that is spent on projects that are wanted by specific congress members.