Neil Armstrong to NASA: You Are an Embarassment

[Greg Tito]

Neil Armstrong to NASA: You Are an Embarassment

The venerable astronaut went before Congress and lamented the space program's current state.

The space shuttle program that was at one time the pride of this nation in the 20th century was officially scrapped earlier this year, leaving the United States no way to reach orbit without depending on their old Cold War rivals. Hitching a ride with the Russians to reach the international space station (ISS) or any other destination outside Earth's atmosphere is absolutely unacceptable to the men who made history walking on the moon in 1969. Neil Armstrong addressed his concerns before Congress in Washington D.C. yesterday.

"For a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable," said the 81-year-old Armstrong.

The private sector might be the best hope for Americans to reach space, but the four-member panel of astronauts believes that the United States is making a grave mistake by no longer investing manned space exploration. The nationalist pride the US won by beating the Russians to the Moon is exactly what the country needs right now.

"A lead, however earnestly and expensively won, once lost, is nearly impossible to regain," Armstrong said.

"As unimaginable as it seems, we have now come full circle and ceded our leadership role in space back to the same country - albeit by a different name - that spurred our challenge five decades ago," said Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon in 1972.

Cernan thinks that it's not too late to reinstate the space shuttle. "You want a launch vehicle today that will service the ISS? We've got it sitting down there. So before we put it in a museum, let's make use of it. It's in the prime of its life, how could we just put it away?" he asked Congress.

"Get the shuttle out of the garage down there at Kennedy [Space Center], crank up the motors and put it back in service," Cernan implored.

The image of a panel of old men who have actually walked on the moon demanding that we bring back the space program is strange to imagine, and I can't help but see NASA's decline as the decline of American civilization.

Also, it's pretty cool that Buzz Aldrin once punched a guy in the face [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUFO8AGMwic] for claiming that the Apollo moon landing was faked. I wish he had appeared on the panel and done that to the Senators and Congressmen in the panel. I feel like that would make the astronauts' point much better.

Source: Discovery [http://news.discovery.com/space/armstrong-congress-nasa-embarrassing-110922.html]

(Image [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2873295400/sizes/m/in/photostream/])

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[Richardplex]

Nationalist pride, because that's what America needs more of.

 

[TimeLord]

NASA, going backwards with it's space program since 1969.

I was serious pissed when I heard they were shutting down the Shuttle program without anything to replace it. Good thing that people like Armstrong feel the same about the state of America's space program.

 

[Bluntman1138]

I think we should be making NEW space shuttles, before we mothball the last we have.

The advances in technology in the past 30 years since the shuttles were designed and made have been remarkable. There is no reason why we should be giving up the Shuttle program. We need to update it, make newer ones that can do something other than just reach orbit.

Of course, what do you expect. The last American President that actually gave more than 2 shits for NASA was Nixon, think about that.

 

[Sampler]

So let me get this straight - a country that prides itself on capitalist democracy should have a socialist space program when they're still arguing socialist health care is a bad thing?

Home of the Brave...I guess the kind of bravery that's a kin to stupidity.

 

[Wicky_42]

NASA, going backwards with it's space program since 1969.

I was serious pissed when I heard they were shutting down the Shuttle program without anything to replace it. Good thing that people like Armstrong feel the same!

It's not as bad as retiring your naval carriers without a replacement, then not planning on stocking the replacement with any actual aircraft... so much stupidity, so often caused by politics.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

NASA, going backwards with it's space program since 1969.

I was serious pissed when I heard they were shutting down the Shuttle program without anything to replace it. Good thing that people like Armstrong feel the same!

So was I, I don't understand how that was a good idea, and not seeing how this is terrible. I think Armstrong should've paid that panel a visit and ripped them a new one.

 

[Robert Ewing]

The old shuttles are far too dangerous to send back up. Jesus, they barely made it the first time. I say develop a new model. I'm sure the tax payer won't mind. Especially as the US are only putting 0.05% of their budget toward NASA.

 

[M920CAIN]

I'm not american so I don't feel that "american pride" yack yack. But some advice: less wars in the Middle East. More money for NASA. Sounds fair?

 

[JochemDude]

Is that guy somehow thinking that this is the cold war all over again. Launching money into space won't precisely help your economical problems.

 

[Rawne1980]

"What do you mean rust, that's not rust ... it's just a brown, flaky go faster stripe .... send it back up".

 

[Thyunda]

I say he has a point. Regardless of the age of the space shuttle - it clearly still works. I'm all in favour of replacing a thirty-year old machine for a modern version...but you see, NASA, the idea is to replace THEN retire. Or, if funding and time is an issue, at least have some kind of plan for the future, rather than relying on your old rivals. Y'know - that country that is practically notorious for doing everything the Americans would rather them not? You've beaten the Russians at getting into space...why have you put them in control of your missions?

Hell - what'll happen if a Russian shuttle loaded with American astronauts were to malfunction? Do you think the American nationalists and the conspiracy theorists would keep quiet about it?

 

[SuperWombat6]

The Space Shuttle is old, fallible and downright dangerous.

I say it's time to develop something new and hopefully more reliable.

I agree with this. See, while the shuttle seemed convenient, and the fact that there were "only" two accidents out of hundreds may seem nice, the fact that there were two accidents is still unacceptable. Until this point there were never any fatal accidents during a mission (Apollo 1, while tragic, was still on the ground, and Apollo 13, while very nearly ending in disaster, brought its crew home alive).

The time was right to end the shuttle. And while there are no actual spacecraft ready to go up as a replacement, there are projects being worked on by the engineers right now. While many planned missions and projects are unmanned, there are some ideas for new manned spacecraft. These would return to the more reliable capsules of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, rather than the complicated and risky shuttle which ended up using whatever money was saved in its reusable nature by being riddled with problems.

Besides, the Cold War is over, especially in the sense of the space race. America has been working alongside Russia in space for many years now; there's no shame or loss in relying on them to service the ISS now that the shuttle's gone.

 

[instantbenz]

there are a few more important obstacles in the American way of life that might need overcoming before we shell out billions to get a handful ... a fucking HANDFUL of us to space. we made our point, you did your work old man. lets fix the economy and homelessness and shit.

 

[Speakercone]

Since 1972 when we last sent man to the moon, we have seen farther into the depths of the universe than we imagined was even there. We have sent robots beyond the edge of the solar system. We have discovered phenomena which are re-defining how we think about physics.

But yeah, sure, put a three more guys' bootprints on the moon before we're ready to create a permanent settlement there. That'll be worth the 100 billion per dude it costs for a return trip.

 

[BrotherRool]

You know whats bad for a countries pride though? Going down yet another credit rating. Or going bankrupt and plunging the world into another recession.

You know what should be bad for pride? Leading the way in an ever widening poor/rich divide and sinking the world further into pollution. Or millions of children without the right to be healthy. Or you know, struggling to pass a gay marriages bill.

Space travel is cool and all, but there are other things that need to be done right now, not a petty feud that your old (defeated) cold war sparring partner is helping you out

 

[Therumancer]

I agree, Space Exploration needs to be one of our major priorities especially with the Chinese getting into the game.

Really, the problem here is that the US hasn't been nationalistic enough, and all of the left wing stuff about how "oh the Ruskies and Chinese are our friends" has detracted from the reality of the situation and how far behind we've been getting. To a liberal, why does it matter if we give Russia space if they are our bestest buddies in the world?

Given the things China has been doing to our satellites (do a search for China, Satellite, Lasers, it's been an issue since like 2006) I think one way to justify the spending would be to do what few people have wanted to support before... and fold The Space Program into the military officially, and task the military with coming up with obtaining domination over space as well as land, sea, and air. While boats, Jets, and Tanks are all important, I think folding the money being used to develop some of that stuff into spacecraft could achieve the same or better results.

The way I look at it is that being #1 in defense spending, but having pathetic funding for The Space Program, if we combined the two NASA and the Air Force could more officially pool their resources towards developing something like Air/Space superiority craft, rather than just pumping the money into new fighter craft or whatever. If we could build say a space shuttle that is also a stealth bomber armed with WMD, while keeping most rival space programs landlocked without our direct approval... well guess what, that guarantees American primacy for a long time to come. Even if we never actually use it, if we're ruthless enough we won't have to.

The way I see things is that if we don't develop that kind of tech someone like The Chinese are going to, and from that point on guess whose mercy we'd be at when it comes time to exploit the astroid belts for minerals, or put science stations on Mars? Yeaaah, not a pleasant thought is it?

Basically I agree with our Astronauts more or less, but in their case they are short on solutions or direct justification. Me, I have no real problem with saying that The Chinese and Russians are NOT our friends, and that like it or not we're in a very real space race again, one that already has military aspects to it, yet we're refusing to even get off the starting block due to naive politics and being overly moral.