WTF Has Obama Done? - Issue No. 020 - Space Exploration & Space Station

We all know that President Obama is to blame for everything; According to the REDs anyway.  But unfortunately for them, they are wrong, and most of the country knows they are.  I can't name the number of times I've heard these fools at work or family say that its Obama's fault the Space Shuttle program ended, and that the Soviet Union (they forget there's no more Soviet Union) will regain their dominance in space and blow us to bits.  Lord help them.  I think they forgot China is on the rise, not RUSSIA.

The beginning of the end of the Space Shuttle program came with the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February, 2003 (6 years before Obama took office).  "Immediately after the accident, NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe activated the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, or CAIB. Very early in the investigation one common topic of discussion among CAIB members and staff was whether the shuttle was too dangerous to continue flying, and whether the CAIB should recommend its immediate retirement."  Those are not my words, those are from the Space Review.  The date for its 2010 retirement was set way, way before our current President took office, and until the REDs pull their heads out of their ass and read some articles from time to time, they will never learn the truth. Ugh. They frustrate me so.

Let's get started with today's achievements...

WTF-58

Worked with international allies on International Space Station

With the release of his fiscal year 2011 budget, President Barack Obama advanced his promise to continue working with the United States' international partners on the International Space Station.

Continuing to use the ISS over the longer term is not a foregone conclusion, since its expected retirement date is officially January 2016. But in seeking to continue utilizing the station until at least 2020, Obama followed the recommendation of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, a blue-ribbon panel more commonly known as the Augustine Committee, after its chairman, Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin.

That committee advised that "the return on investment of (the International Space Station) to both the United States and the international partners would be significantly enhanced by an extension of ISS life to 2020," according to a summary released last September. "It seems unwise to de-orbit the station after 25 years of assembly and only five years of operational life. Not to extend its operation would significantly impair U.S. ability to develop and lead future international space flight partnerships. Further, the ISS should be funded to enable it to achieve its full potential: as the nation's newest national laboratory, as an enhanced test bed for technologies and operational techniques that support exploration, and as a framework that can support expanded international collaboration."  [Read More]

WTF-59

Increased spending to prepare for longer space missions

Because Republicans in congress would rather spend money on causing wars, than spending it on space, this has yet to pass, but it is still considered an achievement and promise kept for the President.

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama said his administration would "support increased investment in research, data analysis and technology development across the full suite of exploration missions including the Mars Sample Return mission and future missions to the moon, asteroids, Lagrange points, the outer solar system and other destinations."

Obama's budget proposes canceling Constellation, the successor system for the space shuttle, and jettisoning the idea of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. Instead, NASA would allocate billions of dollars to "commercial crew" programs and the development of new technologies, as well as $3 billion over five years to pursue robotic missions "to scout locations and demonstrate technologies to increase the safety and capability of future human missions and provide scientific dividends."

As with all elements of the president's budget, nothing is final until Congress passes the relevant appropriations bills and the president signs them. In the case of exploration missions, securing the degree of investment the president wants depends in part on his administration's ability to wring savings from its proposed cancellation of Constellation, whose defenders in Congress could pose an obstacle to the president's broader space agenda. (Some of the money would come from a less controversial source, the end of the space shuttle program.)

That said, the president has not only stated a commitment to further space exploration but has proposed funding levels that outpace inflation. In our view, he has lived up to his promise to "support" such a course. Even though Congress has not yet acted to implement it, we are moving this promise from Stalled to Promise Kept. [Read More]

WTF-60

Added another Space Shuttle flight

Obama "supports congressional efforts to add at least one additional Space Shuttle flight to fly a valuable mission and to keep the workforce engaged. He will work to ensure there is adequate funding to support that additional flight so that it does not interfere with developing the Shuttle's successor."

As the clock ticks on the soon-to-be-retired space shuttle, the president has kept alive the hopes of scientists who want to install a device that would be used for one more experiment on the International Space Station.

First, an update on the space shuttle. The shuttle, which first orbited the Earth in 1981, is slated for retirement in 2010. The Bush administration in 2004 decided to wind down the program so that funding allocated to the shuttle could be redirected to building its successor. As a result, NASA had to cut the number of shuttle flights assigned to assembling and supporting the International Space Station. Originally, the shuttle had been expected to operate throughout the lifetime of the ISS. Under the new Bush policy, all flights were to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2010, specifically Sept. 30, 2010. 

Once in office, Obama did two things. First, with passage of the fiscal 2010 budget resolution on April 29, 2009, he presided over the removal of the Sept. 30, 2010, cutoff date for the shuttle program, giving NASA the scheduling flexibility to complete the remaining flights without excessive time pressure. Second, on May 7, 2009, Obama requested funds for the AMS mission in his fiscal year 2010 NASA budget. The mission is scheduled to launch in mid to late 2010, although it is widely expected that some shuttle launches will slip into the first half of fiscal year 2011.  [Read More]

I promise to come back to this topic in another issue, until then, please feel free to read my previous issues by clicking here.

Make sure to read the next issue
Issue No. 021 - Transparency & Accountability

WTF Has Obama Done is an ongoing series posted daily or weekly on BLADE 7184 until Election Day, 2012!