Update: Obama NASA cuts; Twofer Tuesday: Space Oddity / Major Tom

Update 2: WSJ reports Team Obama rolling back some of their cuts. Sounds half axxed to me, using one program to have a space pod to deploy from the ISS if needed. Uh we still can’t get to orbit alone right? Well don’t we think we will need to get up there? What if we need to deploy a defensive measure :

The president’s funding plan for the National Aeronautical and Space Administration has faced stiff opposition from Congress, in part because it seeks to cut off funding for existing rocket programs that lawmakers support.

The concessions offered Tuesday are an attempt to win backing for the White House plan ahead of a trip by the president Thursday to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There, Mr. Obama is expected to lay out details of the decision to use the Orion space capsule, developed by Lockheed Martin Corp., as an on-board emergency escape system for U.S. crews during their stays aboard the international space station. In an earlier proposal, the administration had planned to end funding for Orion….

Update: Lookee here Neil Armstrong and Apollo 13 astronauts agree with our assessment. h/t AceHQ

Ouch:

Canceling Constellation could lead to thousands of layoffs at some of America’s biggest aerospace contractors, including Lockheed Martin, the Boeing Co. and ATK. Such job losses are among the factors behind congressional opposition to the cancellation. Armstrong and his fellow astronauts emphasize the bigger implications, however, and say in their letter that the decision would put the nation on a “long downhill slide to mediocrity.”The letter notes that the U.S. space effort will be dependent for years to come on the Russians for transport to the International Space Station, at a cost of more than $50 million per seat.

“For the United States, the leading spacefaring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second- or even third-rate stature,” they said in the letter…

I diverge from the majority left and right on this one I guess. I think we should keep our manned space flight program. I don’t like needing to hitch a ride with anyone to get to the space station and who knows where else years from now.

All the tiny little things (microprocessors et al) that made thousands of yrs of tech evolution in like a blink came from NASA afaik…here’s a shout out to the space program..

Eddie Izzard does a great routine on how Americans are raised believing they can do anything, how we went to the moon, and how Brits are discouraged from aiming as high as working in a hat shop…they build a ladder instead of flying to the moon….wouldn’t want Americans to give up their dreams and belief we can do anything…

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April 13, 2010. Tags: David Bowie, Eddie Izzard, Major Tom, Manned Space Flight, nasa, space, Space Oddity. Music, Obama Administration, Politics, Science, Space Program. Comments off.