The Cuts At NASA

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1002/01budget/

Many people have been asking me what my thoughts are on the Obama administration's decision to cut NASA's human spaceflight budget, so I thought I'd share them with you, my closes friends and family.

You all know what a big supporter of the American space program I am and have been since seeing the movie "The Right Stuff" at age 12. I think the exploration and study of space is indeed inspiring, not to mention important to our nation's future. America has always been a leader is space exploration, especially human space exploration. Indeed, we were able to land a man on the Moon just eight years and two months after sending our first astronaut on a fifteen minute flight into space.

Now, don't get me wrong: I also support the robotic exploration of space as well. In my simple way of thinking, those types of missions are necessary when we are unable to send humans such great distances. But at the same time, a robot cannot be a perfect replacement for a human being. So I also support NASA's efforts to develop new research, vehicles and technologies to get humans to these locations (such as our nearest celestial neighbors, the Moon and Mars).

Many of you are aware that NASA's spin-off technology has given us personal computers, fuel cell technology (which is being developed for automobiles), not to mention simple every-day items like Velcro and instant orange juice.

In 2004, President Bush unveiled our nation's new space initiative in the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster a year earlier (the anniversary of which was yesterday, Feb 1--the same day Obama unveils his budget cuts to NASA. Great timing!). Bush announced that we needed to retire the then 23 year-old shuttle program by 2010 due to safety concerns and get on with the business of actually exploring space again. He announced that, following the shuttle's retirement, NASA would be allocated funds to research and develop a new, smaller and safer space vehicle that was reminiscent of the old Apollo capsules which would be versatile enough to act as a "shuttle" for astronauts to the space station, and later, could take astronauts to the Moon and even to Mars.

Since then, NASA has obediently been preparing to end the shuttle program later this year, while at the same time developing and even testing the new rockets and hardware for this new spacecraft, which until today was scheduled to make its first manned flight around 2014. In the meantime, between 2011 and 2014, our American astronauts would hitch a ride on Russian rockets to and from the space station. No big deal in the short term. I even read a story last week that reported the final touches to redesigning one of the launch pads in Florida had been completed to begin the transition for the new vehicle. Exciting!

Today, President Obama revealed his 2011 budget, which eliminated the new manned spaceflight initiatives NASA has been working on. This decision will not only eliminate jobs in the aerospace industry, but may very well indeed end the era of America's pre-eminence in space exploration. This decision will force American astronauts to fly aboard Russian rockets and spacecraft for the foreseeable future, with no prospect of a new American manned spacecraft. And do you mean to tell me you don't think there will continue to be political tensions between the U.S. and Russia in that time?

My friends, I understand fully the tough economic situation we are in, and as a conservative, I agree that cuts need to be made--even at NASA. But the age-old argument, "Why spend all this money in space when we could spend it on needy people on earth" does not hold water. I argue that space exploration has and will continue to improve life on earth, as well as preparing us for sending colonies of humans out into new worlds. The space industry creates jobs all the time with the development of new technology--think about the space-mining jobs of the future when we discover asteroids and the moons of other planets have resources we could use on earth!

So as you can see, I am very disappointed in the President's decision to cut the new space program. One liberal cause I believe fully in is the continued funding of education. You cut education, you cut your country's future. Guess what? The same rule applies to NASA. We need to keep NASA a budgetary priority, and I hope the congresspeople will help the President see that before it's too late.

Thanks for your time,
Todd