Except for the fish who keep swimming in circles!

Again, we await a report on the $145 million worth of science returned by the gold-plated, $2.5 billion turtle known as Curiosity. Tick-tock, tick-tock. More pretty red pictures akin to any a grad studen w/a $5 digital camera couls snap at dawn in Arizona or California’s Mojave. Desert. C’mon, the faculty lounge set can’t be bored by its toy already… could it. The meter’s running. And the public who pays the freight is waiting.

You have it backwards. Which is the nature of NewSpacers enthralled w/t Magnified Impoertance of Diminished Vision. But if you want to propose there’s no political capital to be gained by an incumbant to wax positively on the future of American space activities moving, as his campaign slogans, ‘forward’ into the 21st century, go for it. but then, there’a always the unexpected turn of external events to divert attention. Still wxpect some good MSM reportage, live web streaming and full coverage on CSPAN. =eyeroll=

@NeilShipley wrote @ September 10th, 2012 at 10:39 pm

“There’s next to no political capital to be gained by talking about space.”

‘Except there is-‘

Well if there is, why isn’t it being talked about? Come on, where’s your evidence?

As everyone knows, right now Curiosity isn’t acting as a science mission at all. It’s all about soft power, demonstrating technological superiority. Making Americans feel really, really good about themselves. Better than human space flight has made them feel in a long time. Cheers, high fives, and intense pride. We’re damned good. $140M? (Oh, that’s about two people worth of Soyuz, isn’t it?) Natch. Their seven minutes of terror really aren’t that inspiring. When was the last time you saw a crowd in Times Square cheering for Soyuz?

By the way, Curiosity isn’t gold plated. The coating on the chassis was actually chosen to best show adhering martian dust. But, you knew that …

ROFLMAO you’re just crankin’ to crank. Ask anybody under 40 about Cronkite, and they’ll shrug. He left- or rather was pushed– out of his gig over 31 yeasr ago. “And if you’ll remember you Apollo history, it was because of the LEM design that Armstrong went out first – it could easily have been Aldrin”… ROFLMAO and if you KNEW your Apollo history, you’d know Amrstrong was selected to be first, per Kraft’s memoirs. You’re hilarious. Crankin’ to crank, as ever.

Heinrich Monroe wrote @ September 12th, 2012 at 9:54 am
We await your report on the $140-plus million worth of science delivered to date by the gold plated, over budget $2.5 billion turtle known as Curiosity. Please share your faclulty-lounge data wit the people paying the freight.

“Neil was the first human being in the whole history of everything to set foot on another world.”

Sure. He’s joined the long list of people that because they were first at something, and now they have become footnotes in history books. But generations of Americans didn’t have a connection to him.

At the time of Cronkites death he had still been in the public view, so there was still a strong connection to the person that had been the face of the news for a whole generation.

And if you’ll remember you Apollo history, it was because of the LEM design that Armstrong went out first – it could easily have been Aldrin if some engineers had decided to put the egress hatch on the other side of the LEM. Armstrong didn’t design Apollo, didn’t pay for it, didn’t lead the program – he was chosen for a skill-set he had – for being the most likely to survive.

Right or wrong, those that are in front of the public are missed more than those that are only briefly in the public. That’s human nature, and Cronkite was in front of the public for a very long time, as well as being trusted for what he said.

Get over it.

“You’re just crankin’ to crank.”

At least in this post you are being consistent on one view you have espoused over time, but most of the time you are just disagreeing to disagree – one time you’re for something, the next against. In that respect you’re kind of like Romney…

At the time of their deaths, nether Cronkite nor Armstrong was a federal employee. In fact, Armstrong was very much a public sector employee. Had he been a civil service employee, he would never have sat before a Congressional committee and criticized the space policy of his CiC.

The “first human being in the history of everything”, eh? That’s a tough act to follow. Though I guess Buzz did pretty well as the second human being in the history of everything a few minutes later, and Harrison Schmitt was #12 in the history of everything.

Certainly Obama had a choice about whether to visit the Armstrong memorial service. But what he reasoned, I think, was that it was more fitting was to bring all three of the Apollo astronauts to the White House to honor them, as he did in July 2009. Those three were, of course, representing the team that got them, and our nation, to the Moon. Without that team, Armstrong would never have been even close to the history of everything. So Obama chose to honor a team, and not the memory of one man. I find that very appropriate. Neil Armstrong would not, I’m sure, have looked at it any differently. That’s why I think he wanted to be buried at sea. At least partly because he didn’t want his gravesite to iconically represent, to the American people, the accomplishment of a team, attracting long lines of space pilgrims.

My admiration for the Apollo team is deep, and they did achieve important firsts. They showed what amazing things teamwork could accomplish, and they proudly displayed the technological prowess of our nation. They asserted soft power in a compelling and memorable way. Neil Armstrong didn’t lead that team, but had the profound honor to represent it, and the country that organized it, by implanting his boot prints on the Moon. Being fiercely judgmental about the decision of a president not to walk gravely around the coffin of a representative of that team doesn’t do service to the memory of that team.

bigger laughs up at West 57th St.

I can’t really parse the sentence that you’re referring to in this, but the bar at the Hilton can be a pretty convivial place.

Except we do. And so would= and did- Walter. Neil was the first human being in the whole history of everything to set foot on another world. A historic figure sent there at great expense by the American people certain to be remembered centuries after Cronkite is long forgotten. The guy was a print reporter by trade; following in the wake of Kaltenborn, Murrow and his boys,, etc. — a long lne of correspondents, which he very much knew, as did all the folks up at West 57th and in the trade. Rather than read in print he found himself observed and heard over radio and television. And he’d almost certainly advocate attendance by Mr. Obama at Armstrong’s services in Washington over his own in Lincoln Center. =eyeroll= You weak knowledge of media matters is noted- again. The competitive ‘Iron pants’ had a lot of stiff competition, chiefly from NBC, in his time for a large part of his career in the ’60s. Taking the time to pay respects to the first man on the moon for the last time- an individual representing a massive American effort- is as much an obligation for the CIC as it was for Reagan visiting Normandy and delivering prose at Point du Hoc. =eyeroll= Walter would urge Obama to make the trip ‘cross town. Not just for the honor- but to make news.

“… anymore attention would be viewed as political pandering.” Nonsense. Performing an executive function at a one-of-a-kind national memorial service is a matter of elegance and respect. You’re just crankin’ to crank.