“The consensus in the scientific community is that the Moon does, in fact, orbit the Earth.”

You make it sound like it is in LEO. No.

Did I write that? No.
Do you have a point? No.

No he didn’t. Matt was simply using the term BEO incorrectly. Many people do.

You make it sound like it is in LEO. No.

I guess you could say that my primary reason (other than nostalgia for missing out on Apollo), is that it’s the closest destination for BEO.

Actually, it really isn’t.
The consensus in the scientific community is that the Moon does, in fact, orbit the Earth.

“The shuttle took its last ride, and that song by thec, had meaning today.”

It’s interesting that you equate a song that has a questionable history with the Shuttle, which also had a questionable history.

I’ve always preferred Countdown by Rush. They were at the launch of STS-1, and dedicated the song to Young and Crippen (as well as incorporated launch communications into the song). Still on my playlist.

“And will be darned glad it’s not a DVD or whatever, but the real deal on CNN and the NASA Channel.”

What’s a DVD?

For someone so “young” (far younger than me), you can be so old fashioned. Maybe that’s part of the difference between how we view the future for space – I’m ready to move on to new things, and you want to hang on to the old.

I’m not worried about when we get back to the Moon, or if someone else “beats” us back to the place we’ve already been. As long as we are expanding steadily into space, someone, some company, or some government-funded mission will go back there.

For me, the exciting part is moving out past the Moon and on to other destinations. The Moon is just our closest destination, but not our ultimate one.

Rand: show me where she lists destinations and the like, and I”ll check them out for myself. C-Span and NASA channel don’t show her speeches. And why doesn’t Bolden echo what she says in his House or Senate testimony?

Anyway, it was bittersweet today. The shuttle took its last ride, and that song by the Verve, Bittersweet Symphony, had meaning today. It’s been the only program I know, and I’m sad to see it go. Still upset, but with time, that’ll fade. Now let’s see if Boeing, Orbital, Sierra Nevada, and yes, even Space X, can do the job they say that they can do in LEO. And settle on BEO strategy, spacecraft, rockets, etc. And stick to it. As Alan Shepard once said, “Fix your silly little problems and light this candle!”

One thing that I found on Keith Cowling’s NASAwatch.com; it was just after the announcement of the cancellation decision for CxP a year ago. He noted that within 24 hours of the announcement, there were “Save Constellation” web sites, youtube videos, online petitions, and so forth. He understood because he had worked on Space Station Freedom, and when it was morphed into ISS, his colleagues were outraged. A program that he and his friends had put time, effort, energy, and heart into was being taken away-unfairly, they felt. They wanted to fight back, to save the program, but couldn’t. So their stuff was packed away, to NASA archives, to be seen only by engineers, grad students, and historians. Maybe 5% of their work made it into orbit, but he said something else did: the spirit of the program. When they look at ISS, they see the spirit of Freedom flying: it may not be what they originally worked on; a U.S. Space Station on orbit, manned 24/7/365, but it’s the same concept, only an international project.

So those of us who supported Constellation, and those who worked on it, will do the same thing. So when the first BEO mission flies later this decade, we can look at it and say, “It’s not exactly what we wanted. Not quite a lunar landing program yet, but at least NASA’s flying astronauts BEO.
Lunar orbit, L-points, NEO (with maybe a Venus flyby on the way home), things like that. So that in the late 2020s, maybe 2029, when it’s the 60th Anniversary of Apollo 11, when we go back to the lunar surface with people. And it’ll probably be an international effort, with NASA, Canadians, ESA, JAXA, maybe even Russians, but when the first NASA astronaut steps on the lunar surface, and replaces Gene Cernan as the last person on the moon, then we can say “We finally did it. We got what we wanted: a lunar landing program. Not exactly what was originally in mind, but be that as it may, we’re back on lunar soil.” I’ll be watching. And will be darned glad it’s not a DVD or whatever, but the real deal on CNN and the NASA Channel.

Sorry to be a little longwinded, but had to get that off my chest.

Lori Garver has said that, a number of times. She hasn’t said it before Congress because, for some reason, Congress never calls her to testify. Sorry you haven’t been paying attention.

“Said it before, and I hate to repeat, but again, if POTUS had not said that “been there, done that” in regards to the moon, and said “before we return to the moon, we have to make our program sustainable and affordable, and there are other possible exploration targets for our astronauts besides the moon, such as asteroids, that we gain both deep space flight experience and experience working on another planetary body,” that’s something everyone could be happy with.”

Speaking at Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, President Barack Obama discussed his plans for NASA:

““Let me start by being extremely clear,” Obama said. “I am 100 per cent committed to the mission of NASA and its future because broadening our capabilities in space will continue to serve us in ways we can hardly imagine.””

And

““By 2025 we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first ever crew missions beyond the Moon into deep space,” Obama said. “So, we’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow.””

It looks like he met your requirements in his public speech last year.

If you think he should have said more, or said it differently, then join the very long list of people that want to be speechwriters for Presidents.

And if you think Presidents and administrations are completely in charge of what will happen decades after they leave office, and their predictions should be followed as gospel, they you are living in a fantasy world. Consult your psychologist if you need clarification.

Said it before, and I hate to repeat, but again, if POTUS had not said that “been there, done that” in regards to the moon, and said “before we return to the moon, we have to make our program sustainable and affordable, and there are other possible exploration targets for our astronauts besides the moon, such as asteroids, that we gain both deep space flight experience and experience working on another planetary body,” that’s something everyone could be happy with. The “moon first” people would get a Presidential commitment to lunar return-not the first item, but it would be official, and those in favor of deep space flights get what they want, too. It wasn’t presented that way.