We Won Space Race/Landed On the Moon '69/Now Russians Must Take Us To Space Station

[TheMastersNemesis]

How pathetic. And our present state of affairs is all because of Reagan.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. No, it's all because of the government

Once the government took over the space program, it all went bad.

Now they want to take over Medicare!

[jakeXT]

23. There is Space X

SpaceX has made progress toward an initial crewed flight in 2015 after a "milestone" safety review for manned space operations of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

SpaceX already has flown several Dragon/Falcon 9 cargo missions to the space station, successfully demonstrating the basic orbital flight and maneuvering capabilities. Now, as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, SpaceX is immersed in the design and engineering evolution required to produce an integrated crew-capable Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.

The crew-rated versions of the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 launch vehicle would support government and commercial access to low earth orbit (LEO). This combination is considered a lead candidate for the Request for Proposals just issued by NASA's Commercial Crew Program for the first manned ISS support missions, tentatively scheduled to take place in fully certified spacecraft no later than 2017.

http://www.gizmag.com/spacex-dragon-falcon-9-manned-safety-review/29850/

[Warren DeMontague]

2. I agree that NASA and Scientific Exploration/Understanding of the Universe needs more money.

However, the intrinsic flaws with the Space Shuttle- which, while an amazing engineering accomplishment, had several major, built in inherent issues and suffered from trying to take several shortcuts to doing several different missions all in one vehicle, never really being perfect for ANY of them- to be fair those flaws are more accurately laid at the feet of Nixon, rather than Reagan.

And believe it or not, this is an exciting time for human exploration of space. I actually think moving general run of the mill LEO transport onto private entities like SpaceX - who should be rated to send Humans to the ISS soon - is a wise move, one that can free NASA up for exploration at the edge of human experience.

[Welibs]

3. Russia won the space race. They launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Sure, if you want to throw down totally arbitrary goalposts for an imaginary contest that never

really existed.

Both the US and Soviet programs had their accomplishments. And the Russians have a tremendous amount of knowledge they've accumulated over several decades in LEO, whereas we're the only nation that has sent humans beyond that, but we shut the program down soon after.

The Soyuz has been a workhorse for getting humans to and from orbit, but the playing field is changing rapidly. Just because it is our only ticket right now does not mean the scene won't be very different in even a couple years. I'm betting it will.

[Demo_Chris]

4. No, forget Reagan, it's because of Coolidge!

Why not. If we are going to blame dead people for the actions of the living, I see no particular reason to restrict myself to some conventional and popular target of hate. No, I am going to buck the trend and go with someone obscure, someone I don't know the slightest thing about! I mean, as long as we are making things up, I say go all out.

I fucking HATE COOLIDGE! He's responsible for everything wrong in the world today! What a bastard!

[gtar100]

6. Yes, apparently you don't know much about Reagan either.

That dig at Reagan was no shot in the dark. The movement toward anti-science in the US really took root under his administration. He was a primary supporter of creationism and his big thrust in the space program was Star Wars (and I don't mean the movie).

Of course, though, he wasn't a one man band. It was his administration, it was the conservative movement finally sinking its teeth into the reigns of power, it was the fundamentalist movement coming out the woodwork and thrusting its crap on the American people with the blessings of the conservatives in power. Reagan is the figurehead for all the nasty shit the conservatives put into motion back then. We are reaping the repercussions of their selfish, foolish policies which includes the denigration of science and our space program.

The fact we have accomplished so much over the last 30 years is testimony to the power of science and human ingenuity. Imagine how much more could be accomplished if our programs didn't have to operate with their hands tied behind their backs. We've instead chosen to worship wealth and reward (through the rules of the market under which we operate) those with so little creativity, so little care for this world, and so much ambition and willingness to take and take without any sense of responsibility.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. I'm certainly not one who wants to defend Reagan, but I do know a bit about NASA history.

And the problems with the inherent design flaws in the space shuttle- which are directly responsible for us not having manned orbital capability at this exact moment in time, although that will be changing soon - are absolutely blameable on Nixon.

Nixon also scuttled a great deal of the post-moon landing Apollo applications stuff, which led to a tremendous amount of knowledge on things like heavy lift vehicles (the Saturn Rockets) being essentially thrown in the trash.

[Demo_Chris]

21. I am no expert but I am pretty sure that since Reagan there have been a few...

A few opportunities to alter the course. And more, in my opinion it is complete bullshit (and a slippery slope fallacy) to blame a dead guy for the end result the conservative movement today simply because he uttered some catchy phrases that seemed appropriate to him at the time he said them. The tax hiking, largely anti-war, immigrant pardoning Reagan of the 1980's were he transported through time to today, would damn near be a radical leftist -- certainly when compared to Obama. After all, Obama wants to cut Social Security, the foundation of the liberal movement, while Reagan considered that unconscionable.

The GOP didn't much like Reagan at the time -- it was a Bush machine after all -- and they have only paid lip service to him since. Reagan is an icon they worship, the avatar of Conservatism, not because of what he did but because he was the last actually popular GOP President so they have no one else to point to.

I am not going to defend the guy or his record, but he hasn't been around for a long damn time and it is well past time for us to stop using his as an excuse to justify our own party's direction and failures. Reagan sucked, but apparently we are no better. So what does that say about us.

[RobertEarl]

22. Noted

Quote:
"Reagan sucked, but apparently we are no better."

I am going to presume you are quite young and never really experienced pruneface's regime. Because no grown liberal person that I know would ever utter such a thing as "... we are no better".

[Demo_Chris]

25. Apparently so, since the ghost of a dead moderate has more power...

Than a living Democratic party president or two. Reagan said "Government is the problem" and Clinton and Obama have nodded along. Pretty amazing how powerful that dead actor actually is, wouldn't you say?

[Kablooie]

7. It's because of Washington. He started the whole thing.

Where would we be if Washington had refused the presidency?

[Demo_Chris]

20. I, for one, blame Zombie Washington!

[ReRe]

5. I find it "exceptionally"...

...pathetic.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. Nixon killed the space program....

We would have had a moon base and been to mars long ago by now.

Plus, ordinary people would be going into space.

Nixon HATED all that "peace for all mankind" crap. He was into the Southern Strategy getting the South to vote Republican with racism. That, and he considered all that space stuff to be "a Kennedy thing" and he HATED the entire Kennedy family as did ALL Republicans.

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. The irony is his is the only name on the moon of someone who hasn't actually been there.

I think it's worth going to the moon to tear that fucker off the Apollo 11 lunar lander and install a better one.

[JVS]

11. The space race was merely a PR scheme by the US and Soviet militaries to garner public support for..

creating weapons that could destroy civilization.

Nuclear weapons by themselves did not create an adequate environment for Mutually Assured Destruction, they needed delivery systems. The US started the cold war with not just the advantage of having the A-bomb, but also a clear technical advantage in the ability to construct the long range high capacity bombers required to deliver them. This disadvantage in aircraft capability was exacerbated by the fact that the US had allies near Soviet land while the Western Hemisphere had no regimes sympathetic to the Soviets until Castro came to power. So not only were Soviet bombers less advanced, but their targets were even farther away. Hence the Soviet focus on rocketry as a way of delivering a payload. If you can put a capsule into orbit reliably and retrieve it, you can also deliver a similar warhead to any point on the globe. You also have a lot less worrying about it being stopped en route to target. So while the general public marveled at the technical feats that each side was achieving ine Space Race, the weapons were being assembled that made it so that a war between the two countries would have destroyed humanity. By the 1970s this had been achieved. While a nuclear exchange back in the 1950s would have been ugly, it probably wouldn't have been bad enough to destroy the whole world. After the space race though there were plentiful missiles for nuking every square inch of the world's surface a few times over.

With that goal achieved, there was no reason to continue the space race. The US claimed victory with the moon walks, achievements bereft of any military appication but quite impressive, the Soviets kind of claimed consolation by mastering the construction of space stations better than the US.

[solarhydrocan]

12. But they aren't building our bridges, subways and schools...That's for the

Chinese

The San Francisco Bridge That's Being Built In China Is Almost Done
Jun. 28, 2011

China will send the final four segments of the new Oakland Bay Bridge 6,500 miles to California next month as the 2,050 foot project enters its final phase...

...five of the world's top 10 contractors, in terms of revenue, are now Chinese, with likes of China State Construction Engineering Group (CSCEC) overtaking established American giants like Bechtel.

CSCEC has already built seven schools in the US, apartment blocks in Washington DC and New York and is in the middle of building a 4,000-room casino in Atlantic City. In New York, it has won contracts to renovate the subway system, build a new metro platform near Yankee stadium, and refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem river.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-construction-san-francisco-oakland-bridge-built-in-china-will-span-san-francisco-bay-2011-6

Pathetic? Wait till the next generation catches on to the depth of the sellout.

Except for the sons and daughters of those that arranged it. They will be wondering where to plunder next...Behind locked gates.

[KG]

13. the space was a military anti-soviet angitprop. once the USSR collapsed, nobody that mattered cared.

[Baclava]

14. We won the race to the moon because of SS Sturmbannfüehrer Wernher von Braun

and we rode his Nazi rockets to the moon.





Wernher von Braun poses with some of the key staff of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Huntsville, Alabama. From left to right: Ernst Stuhlinger (seated); Maj. Gen. Holger N. Toftoy, commanding officer; Hermann Oberth (foreground), the father of German rocketry who worked for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Huntsville from 1955 to 1959; Wernher von Braun; and Eberhard Rees, deputy director, Development Operations Division.

"He was one of a group of seven German rocket experts, the vanguard of a larger team that the Army recruited under Operation Overcast (later renamed Project Paperclip) to exploit for their technical expertise. He was the senior member of the group although not the oldest, and he had been its leader in Germany since the beginning, even before the Nazis came to power. His name was Wernher von Braun." (Piszkiewicz, Wernher von Braun: The Man who Sold the Moon, p. 5).

[tritsofme]

16. Our Germans were better than their Germans!

[Baclava]

18. you betcha!

[Iggo]

17. The Russians won the space race.

The USA won the moon race.

[DavidDvorkin]

19. Don't blame Reagan or Nixon or any other politician. The public turned against the space program

before Apollo 11 even lifted off the ground.

There was always opposition, mostly based on cost, but it grew rapidly as the first moon landing mission approached.

[dawg]

24. But we're going to have this awesome private sector space force ...

just any day now.

(Just like in the Aliens movies. Weyland Corp here we come!)