Comments on: Briefs: dueling editorials, Alabama worries, a SOTU request

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:01:11 +0000

What is of note here is that the only people chanting â€œstay the courseâ€ (sorry for the right wing GOP metaphor) are right wing GOPers oh well sorry â€¦are people who have a vested interest that has little to do with human spacefight in the program.

Bill Nelson is a “right wing GOPer”? Who knew?

This has nothing to do with “wings.” It’s all about the pork.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:20:23 +0000

â€œAt a critical juncture for NASA, I think the president owes it to the American people to explain how he intends on preserving jobs along the Space Coast,â€ said Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL). ”

always delicious when members of the GOP call on government to save their pork.

good show

Robert G. Oler

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:18:30 +0000

Doug Lassiter wrote @ January 25th, 2011 at 10:51 am

The US is kind of at one of those moments in history where what is decided over the next few years will have a large impact on what direction The Republic goes over the next several decades.

The issue however is primarily in the economics of our country and the politics of our government. Norm A. is up with a piece about America losing its competitive edge, this has been true for sometime but accelerated under Bush the last (and Obama has done little to stop it) as the notions have taken hold that the very agencies and business which are failing the most HAVE to be saved.

NASA HSF has become a poster child for this. It is hard to argue by any metric that Constellation was a success…but yet folks like Whittington and others are spinning it as some vital necessity and the reasons it is a necessity all are based on rhetoric.

Bush was very good at using these moments. He used 9/11 to implement both economic and foreign policy views that more or less got us into this mess…while on the other hand Obama has simply been unable to summon similar tide changing ability.

It will be oh dark thirty where I am when he makes his speech…but I would be surprised if he manages to harness it here.

Robert G. Oler

By: Doug Lassiter

Doug Lassiter — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:51:07 +0000

That’s correct, that Obama is rumored to have a reference to a Sputnik moment in his SOTU draft. But it would be erroneous to interpret that as a reference to “space policy”. That Sputnik was a ball in space tossed up with a big rocket is irrelevant to what is meant by a Sputnik moment. There are many arenas in which the battle for technological dominance can be fought. In 1957 it was space and, with the development of ICBMs, the then-frightening ability for someone to launch rockets that could put something over your head or, in principle, in your backyard. Sputnik was a statement that “we can reach you”. Space was the “high ground”. It isn’t anymore.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:15:47 +0000

Stephen C. Smith wrote @ January 25th, 2011 at 8:52 am

well done Robert G. Oler

By: Stephen C. Smith

Stephen C. Smith — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:52:51 +0000

A few days back, Florida Today solicited letters from its readers about NASA’s future. The first group were published today:

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110125/OPINION/110124009/1004/opinion/Your+views++NASAâ€™s+future

Yours truly bats leadoff.

By: amightywind

amightywind — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:36:16 +0000

Responsibility for the mess that is NASA falls exclusively with Obama. He and his cadre of incompetent Bolsheviks clearly overreached the mandate for ‘change’. Congress is simply trying to cleanup the mess. Any recovery at NASA must await a new President and NASA leadership. Until then, lets enjoy the train wreck. As for the ‘Sputnik moment’ cliche Obama will undoubtedly use, he has no credibility left on spending, as the embers of the cash bonfire that was porkulus still still glow. New spending will certainly not be popular among the Tea Party freshmen congressmen.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:49:45 +0000

The closest President Obama will come to talking about any ‘space policy’ will be to make a reference to another ‘Sputnik moment’ and the competitive response by the United States initiated by JFK resulting in Apollo and the accompanying boost to several industries, education and business on multiple fronts.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:45:06 +0000

What is of note here is that the only people chanting “stay the course” (sorry for the right wing GOP metaphor) are right wing GOPers oh well sorry …are people who have a vested interest that has little to do with human spacefight in the program.

What the newspapers can see is what should be obvious to everyone…that the Apollo method of running things at NASA HSF has finally run off into the ditch…and it canno longer be the norm for projects.

All of the stay the course people are looking for a miracle to revive the old cold war confortation days…and its not happening.

Obama talking about space policy in the state of the Union? LOL. really they should get a better group of drugs.

Robert G. Oler