Obama Says, No Moon For You!

NASA’s moon plan too ambitious, Obama panel says

NASA doesn’t have nearly enough money to meet its goal of putting astronauts back on the moon by 2020 — and it might be the wrong place to go, anyway. That’s one of the harsh messages emerging from a sweeping review of NASA’s human space flight program.

The Human Space Flight Plans Committee, appointed by President Barack Obama and headed by retired aerospace executive Norman Augustine, has been trying to stitch together some kind of plausible strategy for America’s manned space program. The panel has struggled to find options that stay under the current budget and include missions worthy of the cost and effort.

The committee members will meet with administration officials Friday and will report that there is no realistic way to get Americans back on the moon by the target date of 2020, which has been the agency’s goal since President George W. Bush signed off on the “Vision for Space Exploration” in 2004. Landing on the moon by 2020 would require such drastic budgetary maneuvers as de-orbiting the International Space Station — crashing it into the South Pacific — in 2016.

. . .

The “program of record” — NASA’s current strategy — has not fared well in the committee’s review. Former astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the panel, said the gap between NASA’s goals and its current budget totals roughly $50 billion by 2020. If the space station’s life is extended for five years, she said, the current budget would allow for the completion of a heavy-boost moon rocket only in 2028, and that would be without spending money on developing the components of a lunar base.

See also:
Panel Says NASA’s Moon Plans Unlikely
Panel: NASA Moon Mission Plan Unrealistic
Presidential panel concludes NASA can’t afford return to moon by 2020
Presidential panel downplays NASA’s moon options
Reduced budget threatens manned space options
NASA Budget Threatens Manned Missions, Group Says

$50 billion, these assholes can spend a trillion dollars on Democrat pet projects and call it “stimulus”, but they can’t come up with a comparatively paltry $50 billion to go back to the moon? What a crock of [expletive deleted]!

/OBAMA SPENT MORE THAN $50 BILLION BAILING OUT HIS UAW BUDDIES AT GM AND CHRYSLER!