Michael Griffin ....Only the Naive Believes This!!!

"columbiaaccidentinvestigation"
wrote in message
ups.com...
Why Explore Space from the NASA administrator, Michael Griffin.

tom


http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ex...y_explore.html
"Why Explore Space?
By Michael Griffin
01.18.07
Administrator
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

President Bush responded to the Columbia report. The administration
looked at where we had been in space and concluded that we needed to do
more, to go further.


That's not the sequence of events at all. That does not
reflect in any way how the Vision came to be.
This is a history ng, and that simplistic and inaccurate
statement completely hides the true history and motivation
behind the Vision. And this mistake of brushing past
the history of how this policy evolved completely changes
what we should expect in the future from the Vision.

The Vision was created as a make-work program for
the benefit of the declining aerospace industry.
And as a way of producing a space program that would best
meet the future needs of our national security...the military.
The dreams of low cost to orbit and reusable space planes
has been trashed for the benefit of the big aerospace
contractors and the Dept of Defense.


Prepare to be completely disillusioned.


The first thing to happen was the cancellation of the
X-33 program due to a ....political.... decision from
the White House.

Nasa spaceflight.com
X-33/VentureStar - What really happened?

"Then the hammer blow, as despite the project now
appearing to be back on track, with the move towards
testing of the new LH2 tank, the much-respected former
NASA director Ivan Bekey appeared in front of the
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Committee
on Science, at the US House of Representatives.
His testimony on April 11, 2001, on NASA's FY2001 budget
request 'Aero-Space Technology Enterprise,' proved to be
the final blow for the X-33 VentureStar."

"Each time the Air Force made requests
to take the X-33 project as their own, they found the
opportunity denied at the highest level of US government."
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4180


"Ivan Bekey... worked at The Aerospace Corporation during
the 1960s and much of the 1970s and then at NASA
Headquarters in the 1980s until the late 1990s."
Ivan Bekey works there today
http://www.aero.org/publications/bekey/front.html


The Aerospace Corporation has provided independent
technical and scientific research, development, and
advisory services to national-security space programs
since 1960. We operate a federally funded research
and development center (FFRDC) for the United States
Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office
and support all national-security space programs. "
http://www.aero.org/corporation/


And that put an end to the idea of our govt developing
lower cost to orbit reusable spacecraft.


The next thing to happen was a realization that the
aerospace industry needed to be revitilized. It needed
a large infusion of government contracts and cash
to prevent the industry and its skilled workers from
being lost. And the following commission was
organized in Nov, 2001

(Notice the date wrt 9/11)

The aerospace industry is being 'saved' for the future
needs of the military. The word 'defense' is used some
270 times. Colony only once, moon eight times.
Notice the CEO of Lockheed is among the
commissioners/wolves...guarding the henhouse.


Nov. 8, 2002
Final Report
Commission on the future of the United States Aerospace Industry

"The industry is confronted with a graying workforce in science,
engineering and manufacturing, with an estimated 26 percent
available for retirement within the next five years. New entrants
to the industry have dropped precipitously to historical lows as
the number of layoffs in the industry mount."

"The Commission's urgent purpose is to call attention
to how the critical underpinnings of this nation's
aerospace industry are showing signs of faltering-
and to raise the alarm."
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/aerospace/...inalReport.pdf

Or perhaps the commission should have said...

"our urgent purpose is to take advantage 9/11
by diverting much of the Nasa budget towards
a single large project that can be funnelled to
the contractors favored by the White House."

So now that a need for a new program has been
established, what should be enacted that best suits
the future needs and the aerospace industry and
the military? Nasa officials weren't even consulted
about the possible goals of the Vision until late in
the process.


"....and, eventually, NASA officials into the discussion."

New Moon Rising: The Making Of America's New Space Vision
And The Remaking Of NASA
by Frank Sietzen Jr. and Keith Cowing

"Surprisingly, much of the early work on the new policy was
made by a group of anonymous junior White House staffers
who, by the book's account, had a genuine interest in space
exploration and sought to create a new vision that would
reinvigorate the space agency. This "Splinter Group" spent
months meeting informally, reviewing white papers and
proposals, before inviting more senior advisers and, eventually,
NASA officials into the discussion. This led to the creation
of two "Rump Groups" that narrowed down proposals for a new
exploration plan, keeping in mind fiscal limitations that ruled out
any plan that required significant additional funding for NASA.
The result of these deliberations, spread out over most of
2003, was a plan the President approved on December 19
and announced to the world at NASA Headquarters
on January 14."
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/198/1



And if you still have any doubt that the Vision is a
make-work program meant to subsidize the aerospace
industry, while providing for future military needs
then meet the chairman of the commission to
.....implement.... the "Vision".


President's Commission on Implementation of United States
Space Exploration Policy

Chairman

Edward C. Aldridge Jr.

has served in many top U.S. Defense Department and defense
industry jobs, including as the 16th Air Force secretary
from June 1986 until 1988.

From 1988 to 1992, he was president of the Electronic Systems
Company division of McDonnell Douglas, and later became
CEO of The Aerospace Corporation.

Aldridge was confirmed as the Pentagon's top weapons buyer ***
on May 8, 2001. As the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,
Technology, and Logistics, he had responsibility for acquisition,
research and development, logistics, advanced technology,
international programs, environmental security, nuclear,
chemical, and biological programs, and the industrial base.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preside...oration_Policy


Executive Order: President's Commission on Implementation of
United States Space Exploration Policy

(b) The Commission shall examine and make recommendations
to the President regarding:

(i) A science research agenda to be conducted on the Moon and
other destinations as well as human and robotic science
activities that advance our capacity to achieve the Policy;

(ii) The exploration of technologies, demonstrations, and
strategies, including the use of lunar and other in situ
natural resources, that could be used for sustainable human and
robotic exploration;

(iii) Criteria that could be used to select future
destinations for human exploration;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0040130-7.html


Hmm, first a shill for the Aerospace Corp axes the
X-33, then the same corporation CEO heads the
commission to implement the new 'Vision'.


The Foxes have ruled the day.
We're not going back to the Moon.

The Bush administration has cleverly transformed
much of Nasa into a subsidiary of the
Dept of Defense. While offering the public
nothing more than empty promises of
discovery.


s