“Not really. They aren’t going to make a spacecraft that is unique to one launch vehicle. Current spacecraft can fly on multiple vehicles. The FH will not change this.”

Oh I agree that they won’t until they have decided they can depend on it, and that’s when I think an option would be made to make an incremental change like a longer-lasting bus, as opposed to a combination larger satellite that can only be launched on Falcon Heavy.

But it’s going to be a while before that happens – 2016 at the earliest.

LOL. The problem is, those folks doing the “exploring” these days are being paid for on my dime. Another fallacy we get of historical exploration. Let people go wherever they’re able to go. Just don’t make me pay for their vacations. Elon’s going to go where he’s able to go. I’m going to send people where they’ll make a difference to me.

Not really. They aren’t going to make a spacecraft that is unique to one launch vehicle. Current spacecraft can fly on multiple vehicles. The FH will not change this.

Based on what? Your imagination?

“You don’t read very well.”

I could read at a 2nd-grade level, and it still wouldn’t change the facts.

“the Nixon Administration cancelled the Apollo program, not the Johnson Administration.” <- This is accurate."

Evidence? Reference?

Stating false facts, even repeatedly, doesn't make them true.

"You've been schooled on this topic before as well."

When? Where? Link?

Don't make stuff up.

FWIW…

Inaccurate. You don’t read very well. “the Nixon Administration cancelled the Apollo program, not the Johnson Administration.” <- This is accurate.

You've been schooled on this topic before as well. And know better.

and then … DCSCA wrote @ May 23rd, 2011 at 6:39 pm,
“In fact, it has a great deal in common with it– at the most basic level..”

I’m listening! It this one of those “obvious” things, that are too obvious to articulate? Or too obvious to devote any thought to? Your brevity is revealing.

Most basic level? You mean curiosity, perhaps? Hey, we’re curious about a whole lot of stuff. Like Newton was curious? Like Einstein was curious? We never launched them into space. Or maybe it’s about wanting to find things? Geez. We’re finding things on Titan and Mercury right now. Don’t need no people there. Those explorers in armchairs in Pasadena find a whole lot of stuff. They do it because of technology that historical explorers never had.

Or maybe it’s about asserting power? Magellan was certainly after that. Lewis and Clark weren’t. In fact, it’s noteworthy that the Lewis and Clark expedition was largely forgotten about for almost a century. After they handed their books over to Thomas Jefferson, the country pretty much ignored them. No power conveyed there.

Or maybe it’s about resource development. Gotta get those picks and shovels out and start “exploring”, I guess.

Or maybe it’s just being brave. With all due respect to the “explorers” on ISS, what makes them explorers except that they once lit a fuse underneath them, and they’re spending time in a dangerous place? That exploration is supposed to be what inspires kids to succeed in STEM education, right? Ha.

I’m not saying that human spaceflight is worthless. I’m just saying that the damned word “exploration” and it’s many pathetic contemporary meanings is keeping us from facing up to what human spaceflight is really worth. I don’t have a simple answer, but “exploration” sure isn’t it. That word is a crutch for justifying an endeavor that people love, but largely don’t understand.

No, the budget for the Apollo Program (and NASA overall) started falling in 1967, during the Johnson Administration. The Johnson White House had to submit that budget to Congress in early 1966 and finalized it internally in late 1965. So the Johnson Administration made the decision to put Apollo on a path to termination about two years after Kennedy’s assassination.

NASA cancelled Apollo 18-20 during the early days of the Nixon Administration, but that was NASA’s decision, driven by the Johnson budget cuts. It was not a decision that originated with the Nixon White House. Cap Weinberger, Nixon’s OMB chief, flirted with cancelling Apollo 16-17, but the Nixon White House never took such an action.

The Nixon Administration certainly allowed the Apollo Program die and developed its successor (the Space Shuttle). But the decision to kill Apollo after a few missions was made by the Johnson Administration. Saying that the Nixon Administration killed Apollo is like saying that the Obama Administration killed the Space Shuttle. In both cases, earlier Administrations (Johnson in the case of Apollo and Bush II in the case of Shuttle) actually made the decision to wield the budget axe. The Nixon and Obama White Houses simply chose not to reverse those decisions.

FWIW…

LOL Indeed, all the more reason for you to accept that the Nixon Administration cancelled the Apollo program, not the Johnson Administration.