“As for space projects that take 30 years, hmm….let me think…didn’t something called the Space Shuttle, STS, take about that much time to carry through its manifest?!”

I think the word “program” is confusing you.

The Shuttle was a transportation system that had it’s first flight 13 years after the initial program go-ahead, and it was deemed “operational” a year later (14 years total in case you are math-challenged). For comparison, the Apollo program took 8 years from Kennedy’s speech to when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.

By comparison, we’re talking about 30 years of DEVELOPMENT time before the FIRST program completion of the goal you are talking about (i.e. U.S. return to the surface of the Moon). No one in Congress is going to support that, not with a private company claiming they can do the same in 1/5 the time and 1/10 the budget.

There is no national need to return to the Moon Chris, and Congress would not support the program you propose. Not at all.

Cry and moan all you want, but all you have to do is listen to Congress to see that they don’t have any interest in returning to the Moon, and neither does the public at large.

Why don’t you break your piggy bank and send your money to Golden Spike? They are more likely to get back to the Moon than a U.S. Government effort.

“But what Congress SHOULD have done, was save the Constellation project more fully, and simply stretched it out for a somewhat longer time. Instead of getting to the Moon by 2020, we could’ve acknowledged a less stressful goal aim of 2025 or 2030.”

This statement shows how divorced from reality you really are Chris. The Constellation program, even if FULLY funded, would not have reached the Moon until the 2030’s at the earliest. The EARLIEST. And you don’t have to believe me, just look at the last schedule for the Ares I, Orion, Ares V and Altair lander – only the Ares I and Orion had a chance to be ready by 2020, and only just barely.

So downsizing the Constellation program – stretching it out – would have pushed the program out to the 2040’s. A 30 year program, which is more than a generation of aerospace workers.

Now instead of backing a bloated government program to return to the Moon, you should be supporting the Golden Spike company. They have a plan that takes far less than $10B, and far less than a decade to return to the Moon. How can YOU not like that? It doesn’t even require politicians to be involved. What’s not to love?

Unless you are a government employee looking for a space entitlement program…

“my position is that a Heavy-Lift rocket IS needed, but it needs to be built concurrently with a good idea/concept about just what it is going to carry on its launch.”

Finally, something that borders on good sense. So you do agree we shouldn’t build a $30B rocket until we know that there is something it’s needed to launch?

As to the rest of your Moon hardware, do you understand that no one in Congress is willing to pay for that? No one is interested in creating a funding bill that both houses of Congress will support and will be sent to the President for approval?

If Congress doesn’t want to do your Moon dreams, why build the SLS, right?