Damien Valentine wrote:
I'm not sure what's so encouraging about this. *He's promising that at
the end of his second term -- which he may not actually have -- he'll
think about it. *The Shuttle is still being retired at the end of this
year, and Constellation is still out of the running. *So for at least
5 years, we won't even have plans for manned or heavy-lift vehicles,
and then it will be an indefinite period of time until the approved
design is actually built.

What am I missing here?



I don't think you have missed a thing. You are spot on. Obama's
speech yesterday ... and his ' plan ' for NASA is just his usual
gobbledygook. Personally I'm outraged. Who the hell does Obama think
he is ? A trillion dollars for Govt. run health care over the next
ten years. Hey no big deal. NASA's budget is 0.6% of the federal
budget. $19 billion. But hey ... were going to have to scuttle the
Constelation program ... it had cost overruns. WTF ?

Obama is directing NASA to focus on a space taxi to the space
station. I thought that was what Ares 1 was ( or is capable of ).
Obama says a decision will be made on a new " heavy lift " rocket in
2015. I thought Ares 2 was the new " heavy lift " rocket. My God.
Ares 2 can put more cargo in low Earth orbit than a Saturn V could.
How much more " heavy lift " does one need ?

Look fine ... want to cancel the Moon missions, I'm okay with that.
But I'm in the opinion that however flawed the Ares systems are ...
well ... we needed these damn rockets ! I was of the opinon that Ares
2 was ' flexable ' enough ( such as the Saturn V was ) either for a
moon mission, a visit to an asteroid, a Mars mission, or placing heavy
cargo in Earth orbit. Christ almighty ... I hope Congress has some
members with brains enough to stop this Obama nonsense.


WHAT am I missing ???


Chris