I stand corrected. Thanks, Mr. Adkins.

My experience, in talking to students studying aerospace engineering, is that the antics of NASA over the last few decades have inspired many of them NOT to work on things having to do with our space agency. I’ve been a bit surprised by this reaction, but it’s really pretty understandable. For human space flight, we don’t do anything new. Period. Even for space science, every mission takes an ungodly length of time, and many people work on a concept for many years only to have it canceled. The present fracas in human space flight has left many career-oriented students positively slack jawed. No, it’s not that they love Ares, but that they respect, and expect, visions that are well thought out.

Yep, this is how it works.

Sorry, but in the inspiration department, space used to be a good thing. It really isn’t any longer. Students are getting skeptical about careers in NASA space efforts.

For an elementary school student, someone visiting a school wearing a cool blue uniform is kind of exciting, but as to that blue uniform inspiring hard work in science and math, well …

The obvious place to mention NASA in the SOTU would have been accompanying the few words said about science and technology competitiveness. Is it really that hard to understand why Obama didn’t mention it?

“Even as we explore this innerspace in the new millennium, we’re going to open new frontiers in outer space. Throughout all history humankind has had only one place to call home: Our planet earth. Beginning this year, 1998, men and women from 16 countries will build a foothold in the heavens. The International Space Station, with its vast expanses, scientists and engineers will actually set sail on an uncharted sea of limitless mystery and unlimited potential, and this October a true American hero, a veteran pilot of 149 combat missions and one five-hour space flight that changed the world will return to the heavens. Godspeed, John Glenn.”

ATK doesn’t have a launch capability, but Boeing and LockMart EELVs, even if you consider them overpriced, are much cheaper than Constellation alternative.

FWIW…

“But how can we assume that they can safely fly human beings, when they haven’t demonstrated the capablity to do so?”

How can we assume the current NASA HSF team will when they haven’t demonstrated it either?…

Oh well…

I’m afraid that private commercial companies like ATK, Boeing and Lockheed will use this as a vehicle to sell their own over priced wares in a different form.

My questions is, if you have a true commercial service what infrastructure does NASA need? Also this is only a LEO vehicle. So if we develop a heavy lift vehicle does that work go to the big expensive guys again?

But how can we assume that they can safely fly human beings, when they haven’t demonstrated the capablity to do so?

/snark

And that is exactly what government contracts will help kickstart.

Now, this is giving Obama the benefit of the doubt and assuming he is as great a thinker as he is a great talker (perhaps the best talker since Ronald Reagan). It could also be that he just did not care enough about NASA to realize that it could be a commercial space jobs catalyst for the nation. I hope for the former, but I have seen enough of the latter in my days to not be surprised if it were the case this time around.

As I have said before, this seeming disaster for the human spaceflight program could actually be the opportunity to begin the true exploitation of space (by commercial interests) for the benefit of the USA and eventually the whole world. This could be the game changer right here, right now that people will look back on as the start of man’s real conquest of space.

Curtis Quick