Thursday, March 25, 2010

Scrapping Over The Future

Many in Congress are still opposed to President Obama's plans for NASA manned spaceflight. Some of the opposition comes from representatives of districts and states that have large numbers of people who will lose their jobs under the Obama plan. Some more comes from people who have supported the Constellation program for six years. Still more comes from people who are uncomfortable with Russia controlling the only way Americans can access ISS. They question whether commercial manned orbital spacecraft can really be flying any time soon. That last group should have been more insistent years ago.

There is another position argued in Congress, as well. Some argue that, regardless of whether the private sector can meet the need or not, the U. S. Government needs to maintain its own ability to put astronauts into space if America is to remain a leader in space. It is, perhaps, months away from losing that ability with no plan to rebuild it. There are some things that governments need to have the capacity to do on their own. Whether the government of a great nation in our time, a time when increasing numbers of nations and private companies are looking at space operations, needs to be able to act in space on its own may be something Congress will have to decide.

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