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• Commented on Bolden Meets The Press

  I've been working for NASA for almost 28 years. I worked Shuttle, Station, OSP, and Constellation. In the 3 years I worked Constellation, it was painfully obvious that the entire program was never going to succeed. The people managing the...

• Commented on Mixed Messages From A Less Than Perfect Rollout

  What killed health care and possibly will kill his new plans for NASA are opposition by those who currently profit from the status quo....

• Commented on You Know You Messaging Plan Is Not Working When ...

  So human spaceflight is more important than health care? How 'bout "some things are so irrelevant to the marketplace that your tax money has to be seized to fund them." This is another ignorant quote by the arrogant bastard that...

• Commented on You Know You Messaging Plan Is Not Working When ...

  I guess now it's Obama's fault that 7,000 contractors at KSC are going to be laid off, even though Bush ended the Shuttle program years ago. Constellation was not going to hire 7,000 ops people when it is years away...

• Commented on NASA Is Oblivious

  I'm talking about reality based on NASA's track record. Augustine was optimistic about Constellation's cost but not as optimistic as the program. The report was generous to Constellation because it did not outright declare it a failure. I know how...

• Commented on Buzz Aldrin Thanks President Obama

  "Yeah, I remember the last time. We got the space shuttle with 1/5 the lifting capability of a Saturn V launch vehicle, a $28B development cost (2008 dollars) before first flight, an operating cost of about $1.2B per flight and...

• Commented on NASA Is Oblivious

  A "properly" funded Constellation program would still not get us to the Moon before 2030. Space is simply not a high enough priority to boost NASA's budget by $150 billion over the next 20 years to make that happen. Besides,...

• Commented on The Opening Salvo From Congress

  Obama has finally achieved bipartisanship on an issue, the opposition to canceling Constellation coming from TX, FL, and AL is coming from both sides of the aisle....

• Commented on The Opening Salvo From Congress

  I find it hypocritical that the anti-government Republican crowd is now defending government monopoly of human access to space, dismissing American industry and the free enterprise system as incapable, and touting 2-time endorsement of a proclaimed inept Congress as a...

• Commented on Bolden Talks About The Constellation Team

  @Spaceboy Constellation was not going to save any of the 7000 jobs lost at the end of Shuttle. That's the number projected given the current plan that is in place. Constellation has no money this year and next, none, not...

• Commented on The Politics Behind Opposing Changes at NASA

  You're completely wrong. Those who defend the status quo and the path of guaranteed failure named Constellation do not have a passion for advancing space exploration. They have a knack for building empires. Anyone who defends this program just doesn't...

• Commented on CxP Fights Back: The Video

  I have to believe that if I gave a LM or Boeing $8 billion and 5 years, they could human-rate and fly EELV's with astronauts. That's what CxP has taken to get to PDR (30% design). They are a decade...

• Commented on CxP Fights Back: The Video

  There is a certain amount of sadness about canceling this program, but quite honestly, we should never have been led down this path this far. The problem with this program isn't that a lot of great work hasn't been done,...

• Commented on Shelby Was For The Private Sector Before He Was Against It

  This is not privatizing space. It is breaking NASA's stranglehold on putting humans in orbit, something industry is certainly capable of doing as a service rather than an in-house capability. The biggest lesson that most don't seem to have learned...

• Commented on Obama's Plan For NASA Revealed

  @macman1138 I take it you're a Republican because all you folks care about is re-election. Obama is doing this for the good of NASA and the country. He certainly has a political agenda, but it's about bringing this country out...

• Commented on ATK Fights Back

  Ah, the old "sunk cost" argument. You know when that is someone's position, they have no real case for their viewpoint. I'm sorry, but 5 years to reach PDR? PDR is not even near halfway to operational status. You have...

• Commented on Obama's Plan For NASA Revealed

  I hope this budget gets passed as is. This is the right path for NASA. If you can't get on board and want to dig in and defend the status quo, maybe you shouldn't be in this business. Not that...

• Commented on Preview of Official NASA Budget/Policy Events - 2nd Update

  I won't be getting too excited by any of this, not until the 2011 budget comes out of Congress and the president signs it. Then, and only then, will we know the fate of Constellation and the future of NASA....

• Commented on DIRECT Delusions

  Miles, people speak up at the working level but middle and upper management squash anything that would challenge the status quo because they are all looking for an SES position, or if they have one to get another stellar assignment...

• Commented on DIRECT Delusions

  Frank, the space program was over when the decision was made to retire Shuttle. Constellation was never going to produce anything this decade no matter what the program claimed. The Moon was never in reach, that was an illusion. NASA...

• Commented on More Sour Grapes From Scott Horowitz

  @dbooker The ML structure was built so early because it is in the critical path to the first test launch of Ares I. The tower is complete, but there are still structural details to finish. Then work can begin on...

• Commented on More Sour Grapes From Scott Horowitz

  Lockheed, Martin Marietta, Rockwell, General Dynamics, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Northrup Gumman. These are the companies that built America's space program and every manned rocket from Mercury to Shuttle and you are telling me that private industry can't do this? That...

• Commented on More Sour Grapes From Scott Horowitz

  Constellation was never going to the Moon or beyond. That is a false claim that was never going to come true. Can't you people see that? Five years and 8 billion dollars into it and the program has only reached...

• Commented on Constellation Cancellation Reaction

  I thought Republican were all for government getting out of industry's way to allow progress? Now Obama does that and it's the end? Repubs are anti-Obama no matter what he does, no principles, just wish-wash. It is the end of...

• Commented on Is Constellation Dead?

  This not the end of US human space flight, however, it is the end of NASA human space flight. NASA has had a stranglehold on human space flight for decades and I hope this is the beginning of the end...

• Commented on Going In Circles Again: America Will Abandon Human Lunar Exploration - And Much More

  This is not the end of human space flight. Ares I and Ares V are cancelled, as they should be. We will develop a heavy-lift vehicle using Shuttle components to a greater extent than before. We will not waste our...

• Commented on NASA Must Change and it Must Change Now

  Only one thing can save NASA from its own incompetence in assigning the wrong people to manage its biggest projects, we need independent selection commissions to approve the hiring of our project managers based on their proven experience on past...

• Commented on The Ares 1 Cancellation Backlash Begins - Before It Is Even Announced

  You seem to be in denial of the fact that the existing CxP architecture was never headed anywhere but LEO either. The VSE plan to go to the Moon is laughable given the budget. Griffin himself said we would proceed...

• Commented on NASA: Less Money, New Direction?

  I hate that we are replacing the Shuttle with a capsule and throwing away all the knowledge and hardware from 30 years of experience. I would like to have seen a second generation Shuttle. With the weight savings of using...

• Commented on SpaceX Refutes Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel

  This is laughable. 200 launches! The Shuttle failed after just 25. The might Saturn V that everyone touts only flew 13 times, though with no failures. Commercial rockets have a very high DEMONSTRATED reliability. Ares I has nothing. With this...