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Pres. Kerry's NASA



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 9th 04, 12:55 AM
ed kyle
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle
  #2  
Old February 9th 04, 01:01 AM
Mark R. Whittington
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA


"ed kyle" wrote in message
om...
What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle


That's the assumption, though many people thought that Clinton would cancel
the space station in 1993 and he did not.

My guess is that we would probably see the end of Americans in space under a
Kerry administration, sooner or later. It's pretty clear that regardless of
what some people might want, we can't keep the shuttles flying for more than
about ten years in any case. So without something like the Bush plan to
replace the shuttles, we'll see the triumph of Robert Park's "robots uber
alles" additude.


  #4  
Old February 9th 04, 05:59 AM
Henry Spencer
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

In article ,
ed kyle wrote:
What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?


Replacing the shuttle with the CEV is clearly a reasonable thing to do and
will probably continue, but CEV's beyond-LEO role will be firmly shelved,
as will any significant funding for return-to-the-Moon preparations. The
emphasis will be on ISS and meeting prior commitments, and on some modest
reductions in NASA's budget.

Bear in mind that even assuming Kerry wins and goes two terms, and the
CEV stays roughly on schedule, we'll be in the tail end of his presidency
before shuttle retirement and manned CEV LEO flights are an immediate
prospect. Only then will a big decision have to be made about funding for
more ambitious things. By that time, the easy thing to do will be to
stall and punt any major decision to the next president.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |
  #5  
Old February 9th 04, 06:43 AM
Mike Rhino
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

"ed kyle" wrote in message
om...
What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?


It's impossible to say. Going to the moon is such an obvious choice that he
might very well keep that and cancel everything else including the shuttle
and shuttle replacement. CEV will be renamed the KEV (Kerry Exploration
Vehicle). During the next 10 years, Mars is irrelevant, so it doesn't
matter whether he supports sending men to Mars or not. He won't, but that
won't set back the Mars program any.


  #6  
Old February 9th 04, 10:08 AM
Kaido Kert
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

"Mark R. Whittington" wrote in message hlink.net...
"ed kyle" wrote in message
om...
What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle


That's the assumption, though many people thought that Clinton would cancel
the space station in 1993 and he did not.

My guess is that we would probably see the end of Americans in space under a
Kerry administration, sooner or later.

I dont think he would have means to stop X-Prize or Space Adventures.
Americans could still go to space.

-kert
  #7  
Old February 9th 04, 12:41 PM
Mark R. Whittington
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA


"Kaido Kert" wrote in message
om...
"Mark R. Whittington" wrote in message

hlink.net...
"ed kyle" wrote in message
om...
What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle


That's the assumption, though many people thought that Clinton would

cancel
the space station in 1993 and he did not.

My guess is that we would probably see the end of Americans in space

under a
Kerry administration, sooner or later.

I dont think he would have means to stop X-Prize or Space Adventures.
Americans could still go to space.

-kert


Don't be too sure about that. I do not think Kerry would exert himself too
much to pass regulatory or tax incentives for private space travel. Also, he
is quite capable of forbidding travel to the Moon or Mars out of
environmental reasons.


  #8  
Old February 9th 04, 01:16 PM
Jon Berndt
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

"ed kyle" wrote in message

What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle


Well, *if* PK is selected by the Dems, and *if* he wins the election, we can
get a little insight from these:

Here are some links which reveal at least some things about the various
democratic candidates:

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/84/1,

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...426EST0632.DTL,

Jon


  #9  
Old February 9th 04, 03:11 PM
Reed Snellenberger
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

(ed kyle) wrote in
om:

What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle


Kerry probably won't do very much in a direct manner about NASA -- for
one thing, support for manned spaceflight among liberal Democrats has
historically been pretty low (personified by Mondale), and Kerry himself
doesn't have much of a history of getting things done in the Senate.

The indirect effects of a Kerry election will be much more significant.
First of all, he'll be running on an agenda of increased taxes that will
run a high risk of stalling the economic recovery in the U.S. A slowed
economy led by a President whose consituency will insist on spending the
budget on domestic issues (expect national health care initiatives and
similar programs) will simply not have the discretion to spend "extra" or
"optional" money on new initiatives. Furthermore, the fact that the
initiatves were originally proposed by the "loathsome" G.W. Bush will act
as a further damper.

Secondly, the defeat of G.W. Bush will be viewed in the rest of the world
as a repudiation of the war on terror. Whether or not this is true, it
can't help but encourage new efforts to force the U.S. out of the Middle
East. Kerry's views of international terrorism as a law enforcement
issue, rather than a national security one, practically guarantee a
return to the previous policies for dealing with terrorists. I'd predict
a resurgance in large-scale terrorism against domestic & foreign U.S.
targets within a year of the election -- with the resulting economic
damage further reducing the money available for "optional" projects like
the CEV (or a Kerry equivalent).

--
Reed
  #10  
Old February 9th 04, 04:13 PM
Dave Fowler
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Default Pres. Kerry's NASA

From: Reed Snellenberger

Kerry probably won't do very much in a direct manner about NASA -- for
one thing, support for manned spaceflight among liberal Democrats has
historically been pretty low


John F. Kennedy, anyone?
 




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