Tragedy in Washington today.
If you are in Washington DC, you saw one of the most amazing sites you could have seen. It was an absolute tragedy and a travesty.
What could be amazing and a tragedy and travesty all at once?
It was the final voyage of Discovery.
Discovery is the most traveled of all of the space shuttle fleet. Discovery was the third shuttle and became the oldest surviving shuttle after the loss of the two oldest shuttles, Challenger and Columbia.
The people of Washington got to see Discovery, piggybacked on a massive 747 carrier aircraft today as it was being transported to Dulles International Airport to be placed on display.
Discovery first flew in 1984, when America was at its greatest. Ronald Reagan was President. The Soviet Union was slowly collapsing and Americans saw our nation as the great shining city on the hill and we believed it was “Morning in America.”
No longer.
Discovery was decommissioned during the administration of a President who is an anti-American Marxist and who wants to see America retreat from its greatness.
Discovery was old, as were all of the other shuttles. They should have been replaced. The light finally came on for the Bush administration late. They realized America needs a space program and Bush proposed the Constellation program and the Orion space program.
Obama killed the Constellation program and modified Orion so it is only an Earth orbiting vehicle, if it ever sees the light of day. Obama, who believes that is the mission of NASA to make sure Muslims feel good about science, ensuring that the United States, the nation that landed men on the moon, would no longer have a manned space flight capability.
Today, while we have spent billions on the International Space Station, the only way we can get there is for the Russians to give us a ride on the Soyuz Space Craft. Given our tenuous relations with Russia, the real question is how much longer will this ability last.
How long will it be before there is a blow up between Russia and the United States and Russia simply cuts us off from access to the International Space Station?
Russia has already announced plans for the ISS to be forced into a controlled reentry in 2020.
Really?
We paid for the damn thing. Who do they think they are?
Oh wait; they think they are the only nation that can deliver Americans to the ISS.
Allegedly Orion will be ready for manned space flight in 2020. Given the track record of government programs that is hard to believe they will have it on time and of course that assumes that Obama and the Party of Treason do not kill it in a second Obama term.
Discovery is now grounded. The once proud space ship is now simply a hollowed shell, on display to remind us that at one time America was a space faring nation. Meanwhile Russia and China are both working on manned flights to the moon.
If Obama has his way, Russia and China will go to the moon and America will go into obscurity.
We need to remember this as we go to the polls this fall.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JMC on -
Jim I was surprised to see the support that Gabrielle Giffords and her husband show to Obama with her husband being an astronaut. Or at least it seemed to me that both she and her husband think Obama is great. I know she is a Democrat but I still expected to see a little more disappointment from them.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Stephens on -
They are typical liberal demorats...
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Permalink Reply by William E. Hall on
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Nancy,
First of all, I totally share your pain and disappointment!
Secondly, the most important point of all is to remember all of these events of the past 3 years (shutting down the space program, Solendra, catering to the Muslin religion, the Fast & Furious scandal, the GSA scandal, the Secret Service prostitute scandal, the price of gasoline, the non-prosecutiion of the Black Panthers for voter intimidation, the public condemnation of the Supreme Court in the state of the union address & while the court was deliberating on the constitutionality of the ObamaCare act, the economy, the freeze on drilling, the blocking of the pipeline from Canada, the remarks of an advisor to the democratic party concerning Mrs. Romney as a stay home mom, the support from radical groups & Bill Maher & his filthy mouth, the phony data coming out of Washington as to employment or lack of, the lame-stream media, etc, etc, etc. REMEMBER ALL OF THESE EVENTS IN NOVEMBER AND ASK YOURSELF IF YOU CAN STAND 4 MORE YEARS OF IT!!! That question must be on the hearts and minds of every single American in that voting booth. My heart is about to explode over this and I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!
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Permalink Reply by James Vian on -
Take warning! The fact is, with Romney as the establishment coronated candidate, even though you and I vote for him, we will not get our country back! Obama with his "smarter than any of us elite media" backing, will destroy Mitt before the end of September in the general election, if he is the one confronting Obama. Mark my word!
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Permalink Reply by OneCitizenOfTheRepublic on -
Obama often makes me feel like a pro league baseball player...who has just been told that he cannot play anymore because some rookies who don't have the skills or desire to excel are feeling left out...and "after all, winning isn't everything..."
I've got no problem with playing everyone in little league...Although I don't know that I'd throw a game to let everyone play. I mean, what happened to the idea, that "sometimes we all must 'bunt one' for the team?" Sure we all want to win, at least we did when I was playing? What's up with that? And by the way...Mr. socialist in chief...you're in the major leagues now!
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Permalink Reply by Jason McRuer on
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I don't entirely agree with this. I see space missions as pork like nobody's business. I was tired of seeing manned launches and people talking about living on other planets. Pipe dreams.
We were throwing trillions at a program (specifically manned launches) that wasn't showing results. Frankly, the cut of the space program is one of a few things I agree with Obama on.
While I'm not excited about space travel, I would support more satellite technology. But believing that there is any value in travel to the moon (uninhabitable at this point) is just another tool used to exploit tax payers for more money.
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Permalink Reply by Glenn Sheeler on -
a great many things now exist because of the space program
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Permalink Reply by charley horse on -
Jason - you reflect my sentiments EXACTLY !!!
Playground and $ dump between the Planets. I don't discount that much technology advanced by leaps & bounds as a fringe benefit but those same advances could have been achieved at a MUCH lower expenditure right here on earth.
charley
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Bishop on
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Five years ago I would have disagreed with you, but after seeing everything that Richard Branson has accomplished at a fraction of the cost I agree with you 100%. If the government is going to cancel our space program they need to change some rules and allow it to be privatized.
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Permalink Reply by James Vian on
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Privatization is basically what Newt was proposing,
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Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on -
It really doesn't matter whether you or I agree with Obama on cutting the space program -- what's important is why he is doing so. He has proven to the world that he is not about cutting spending on anything to save money. Once that fact is acknowledged, we have to ask ourselves why this man would cut this program, while throwing money at just about everything else like there's no tomorrow.
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Permalink Reply by Harry Maltby on
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Then I assume that if you have lived earlier in our American history, you would probably criticize the canals, train and highways not to mention the water and sanitation systems the United States, pushed on us, the citizens using our taxes. Exploited? I think criminals are in charge of the US at this time and are dragging us down both politically and financially. I think there may well be a organized group who’s desire is to dismantle the US and any type of government organized effort in the support of freedom and a free country. Sorry, I was one of those Aerospace engineers that was only trying to exploit so I probably have bias. Lets see how many healthy humans we can pack into the big cities for x amount of dollars? Or, FEMA camps as the case may be.
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