Sunday, December 5, 2010

How many astronauts is too many for NASA?

Goodbye Space program
I know this is not exactly "tech news" but I just has to get this off my chest. As our nation's economy continues to limp along and wars rage on just about every continent, one of our nation's premier organizations has been getting stripped of it once great shine by politicians who refuse to see beyond their own term in office.

Just think, back in 1968 and 1969 even as the Vietnam war was engaged, college campuses exploding with protests and leading politicians being gunned down our nation remained committed and capable in directing it's limited scientific resources & energy to going to the moon. Today with technology exploding all around us, our nation has had to resort to canceling the space shuttle program while at the same time canceling future man space exploration. That is unless the Russians are willing to let one of our astronauts hitch a ride on one of their spacecraft (for a price of course).


I was 5 years old when our nation first landed on the moon and 9 years old when our last astronaut, Gene Cernan left the moon (Apollo 17). Unless something drastically changes, I will probably never get to see another human being in deep space and I fear for our children as well. What has happened our nation's vision of being the leader in exploration? Exploration and personal growth provides people with something to be proud of. Being a truly unified nation is much more then war and taxes.

To learn more about the fate of many of our astronauts check out the following article.
NASA: How many astronauts is too many for NASA? - OrlandoSentinel.com

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