On 27/11/2011 6:58 AM, Winston_Smith wrote:


Outsourcing the cutting edge technology we invented and pioneered.
That lead to hundreds if not thousands of everyday spinoff
technologies. Brilliant. Your examples are good but they have along
way to go. Unless you see them coming to maturity in just a few
years, astronauts we recruit today will be getting pretty long in the
tooth. Meanwhile we are passengers on Russian and maybe Chinese
flights. Damn, we is da leaders, isn't we?

The U.S. space program is more than just healthy, it's booming.

Never say "booming" during a rocket launch.

Good point on this latter sentence. However, Astronauts are launched
regularly to the ISS (aka Space Station), inlcuding Americans. They
don't stay with the program forever and must be replaced. Also, SpaceX
are due to launch soon (was supposed to be in the next few days, but
things have been delayed somewhat) to ISS with Dragon (a spacecraft
capable of carrying people. U.S. astronauts will be carried aboard
Dragon in the next few years.