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2011-01-14 Science & Technology
NASA says it can't afford new rocket, spacecraft
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Posted by Fred 2011-01-14 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ]  Top

#1 "The production of a heavy-lift rocket and capsule is not optional. It's the law," said a joint statement issued late yesterday by Senators John Rockefeller, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Bill Nelson and David Vitter.

And once again the US government does a fine impression of Book I of Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by AzCat 2011-01-14 00:48||   2011-01-14 00:48|| Front Page Top

#2 Who needs spaceships? I thought NASA was supposed to appeal to Moslems and crap.
Posted by newc 2011-01-14 00:52||   2011-01-14 00:52|| Front Page Top

#3 I guess that joke about expecting them to do the impossible with nothing isn't a joke in this case.

Have they tried beatings until morale improves?
Posted by gorb 2011-01-14 03:07||   2011-01-14 03:07|| Front Page Top

#4 Can't have a Bake Sale. The Safety in Foods Act prohibits people who do not have the required Licenses and Permits from selling or giving away food.
Posted by Deacon Blues 2011-01-14 07:53||   2011-01-14 07:53|| Front Page Top

#5 Privitization sometimes works. Just say'n.
Posted by Besoeker 2011-01-14 07:55||   2011-01-14 07:55|| Front Page Top

#6 The obvious solution is to outsource it to China.

I'll take my bonus now.
Posted by Javins3089 2011-01-14 09:06||   2011-01-14 09:06|| Front Page Top

#7 This is my memory. Back when the Shuttle program was in budget problems in the 70s, they took the overrun money from DoD above what had already been allocated from Defense to cover recon and communication satellite launches [how did that work out?]. This is while my married troops were qualified for food stamps and living in ghetto quality government housing. Kept the engineers, scientists, administrators, and contractors in a manner they wanted to be accustom to. Post me the smallest violin in the world.
Posted by Procopius2k 2011-01-14 09:14||   2011-01-14 09:14|| Front Page Top

#8 they probably have some old O-rings laying around they can use.....
Posted by USN, Ret. 2011-01-14 11:26||   2011-01-14 11:26|| Front Page Top

#9 How about pandering money from the Sods, then each country could have a long distance heavy lift delivery system...what could go wrong?
Posted by swksvolFF 2011-01-14 11:36||   2011-01-14 11:36|| Front Page Top

#10 I remember reading that the first lift to 100yards consumed the most fuel.
AND i remember reading about using helium Balloons to lift rockets into the stratosphere before firimg.
SEEMS to me That combining these ideas will allow heavy lifters and light(er) Weight at the same time.
Yup I read Science fiction,(Hard science) not the crap today where vampires and horror is labeled SF.
Posted by Redneck Jim 2011-01-14 12:54||   2011-01-14 12:54|| Front Page Top

#11 Why not buy one from spaceX or United Launch?
The idiots have already spent 40 billion on a capsule with no mock up or launcher to show....
Posted by Water Modem 2011-01-14 14:48||   2011-01-14 14:48|| Front Page Top

#12 Payload to LEO:
Shuttle: 24,400kg

Delta IV: 23,000kg
Atlas V: 29,400kg
Falcon 9 Heavy: 32,000kg (in development)

If NASA can't hack it, the DoD and SpaceX can.
Posted by George Hupaviger4591 2011-01-14 17:13||   2011-01-14 17:13|| Front Page Top

#13 "Can't have a Bake Sale" > D ****, I knew it!
Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-01-14 19:31|| na  2011-01-14 19:31|| Front Page Top

#14 NASA has overplayed its hand. It has more proportional fat than does Manuel Uribe, and strictly obeys Bureaucrat Rule #1, "When threatened with budget cuts, cut the meat and leave the fat."

For example, while NASA has only 18,000 employees, if you add all the pricey subcontractors it uses, that number is about 300,000. This is because they are limited in the number of actual employees they have, but subcontractors are paid from its operational budget.

So it has an immense janitorial maintenance subcontract staff, all of whom are SEIU, btw. Every single union in the US gets full pay from NASA, even in Right to Work States.
Posted by  Anonymoose 2011-01-14 20:21||   2011-01-14 20:21|| Front Page Top

23:56 gorb
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