AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

NASA - Going nowhere fast

For twenty years, NASA has been treading water, the agency has really been without direction since the Challenger blew up, much less the more recent Columbia disaster. The space shuttle would never be a cheap space truck. Soon it would be come apparent that there was never going to be a self-justifying mission for the international space station. Single stage to orbit designs ran into one snag after another. Now there are snags in the "Orbital Space Plane" program.

The biggest problem is that there isn't consensus on what it is supposed to be, a cheap lifeboat for the space station or a relatively cheap passengers-to-orbit vehicle.


Not So Fast, Lawmakers Say of Plans for a Space Plane

From a public policy standpoint, I think we need to go back to the starting ground. Instead of having a National Aeronautics and Space Administration, we need to have a National Science Administration.

Scientific projects outside of the space program need to be able to fight for funding on an equal playing field with those inside the space program. Then maybe we can address some of the scientific funding issues for new energy technologies and programs that can solve some of the environmental problems that we're dealing with.