Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Armstrong comes out against Obama's space plan

The first man to stand on the moon came out today against President Barack Obama's decision to cancel the return-to-the-moon Constellation program.

Neil Armstrong, who rarely makes any public comment, joined up with James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13, and the last man to stand on the moon, Eugene Cernan, to warn that the president's plan could be "devastating."

They sent their statement to Jay Barbree, a longtime space reporter for NBC who lives in Brevard County and covered all of their missions.

Read their letter below.

The United States entered into the challenge of space exploration under President Eisenhower’s first term, however, it was the Soviet Union who excelled in those early years. Under the bold vision of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with the overwhelming approval of the American people, we rapidly closed the gap in the final third; of the 20th century, and became the world leader in space exploration.


America’s space accomplishments earned the respect and admiration of the world. Science probes were unlocking the secrets of the cosmos; space technology was providing instantaneous world wide communication; orbital sentinels were helping man understand the vagaries of nature. Above all else, the people around the world were inspired by the human exploration of space and the expanding of man’s frontier. It suggested that what had been thought to be impossible was now within reach. Students were inspired to prepare themselves to be a part of this new age. No government program in modern history has been so effective in motivating the young to do “what has never been done before.”


World leadership in space was not achieved easily. In the first half century of the space age, our country made a significant financial investment, thousands of Americans dedicated themselves to the effort, and some gave their lives to achieve the dream of a nation. In the latter part of the first half century of the space age, Americans and their international partners focused primarily on exploiting the near frontiers of space with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.


As a result of the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, it was concluded that our space policy required a new strategic vision. Extensive studies and analysis led to this new mandate: meet our existing commitments, return to our exploration roots, return to the moon, and prepare to venture further outward to the asteroids and to Mars. The program was named 'Constellation'. In the ensuing years, this plan was endorsed by two Presidents of different parties and approved by both Democratic and Republican congresses.


The Columbia Accident Board had given NASA a number of recommendations fundamental to the Constellation architecture which were duly incorporated. The Ares rocket family was patterned after the Von Braun Modular concept so essential to the success of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn 5. A number of components in the Ares 1 rocket would become the foundation of the very large heavy lift Ares V, thus reducing the total development costs substantially. After the Ares 1 becomes operational, the only major new components necessary for the Ares V would be the larger propellant tanks to support the heavy lift requirements.


The design and the production of the flight components and infrastructure to implement this vision was well underway. Detailed planning of all the major sectors of the program had begun. Enthusiasm within NASA and throughout the country was very high.


When President Obama recently released his budget for NASA, he proposed a slight increase in total funding, substantial research and technology development, an extension of the International Space Station operation until 2020, long range planning for a new but undefined heavy lift rocket and significant funding for the development of commercial access to low earth orbit.


Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating.


America’s only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope.


It appears that we will have wasted our current ten plus billion dollar investment in Constellation and, equally importantly., we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded.


For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. While the President's plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years.


Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.




Neil Armstrong
Commander, Apollo 11


James Lovell
Commander, Apollo 13


Eugene Cernan
Commander, Apollo 17

28 comments:

NRAbenefactor said...

I, for one, support President Obama's position on this issue. Granted, it's one of the few things he and I agree on, but Constellation was a disaster, and as a tea partier I feel that the money spent on NASA is a fraud and a waste. Taxed Enough Already!

Stephen C. Smith said...

The bold vision of President Nixon?! He inherited the program about six months before the Apollo 11 landing ... and cancelled it shortly thereafter.

The decision to rely on Russian access to ISS via Soyuz was made three years ago by the Bush Administration, which also decided there would be a minimum five-year gap until a new vehicle was ready. The Augustine Panel found the gap would be more like 8-10 years.

I can sympathize with the veteran astronauts wanting to return humans to the Moon, but there's simply no rational justification for it right now other than ego. The true benefit to humanity is the full use of the ISS for medical and biological research, and opening space to commercial use so the private sector can invent new technologies that will benefit us here on Earth as well as to go to deep space more efficiently.

A rerun of Apollo serves no purpose, at least right now. Apollo cost $145 billion in current dollars, which was justified solely by showing the world that our technology was better than the Soviets'. In an era of trillion dollar annual deficits, that kind of wasteful spending would be irresponsible.

The "right stuff" test pilots could fly their craft, but they never balanced a budget.

Anonymous said...

Recognizing that we've become the largest debtor nation on Earth, with health and human stats rivaling the low end of the Third World, isn't necessarily an easy thing to fess up to...

Anonymous said...

Well said, men. Thanks to these Apollo Commanders, the astronauts, and the men and women who supported our country's space program, including NASA, the Government, the Contractors, and the people of our country and this planet.

Anonymous said...

What? Criticize Obama's decision to cancel Constellation? Must be racists...

Anonymous said...

They did not mention Bush anywhere in their letter.Isn't he alone to blame?

Anonymous said...

The timing of this message leaves no doubt that the aerospace contractors are hard at work avoiding a more competitive space industry based on commercial demand and less on nationalism.

When the U.S.A. is a wasted husk and a museum of past accomplishments, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the rest will move their headquarters overseas. They've sucked the taxpayers here dry!

Anonymous said...

Commercial space endeavors?? are you really that naive? The Augustine panel was ran by an economist (Garver) and a Lockheed exec. The "commercial" aspect will only ensure your taxes go directly to Lockheed and others at a much higher final cost. Know your history, research a little and look at the numbers we (the taxpayer) paid to these "commercial entities for the current DOD payload capability. The true waste is all of the hard work and hardware invested so far will be scraped and the uninformed will be none the wiser.

Anonymous said...

If Neil actually came out and made a statement in public against the axing of manned space flight, he must REALLY be stronly against it. Neil's been kind of a recluse since landing on the moon. Felt he didn't want the publicity of being the first.

Anonymous said...

I believe everyone just needs to wait and see what he says thursday.

Anonymous said...

Posting as Ryderhard, not sure how to get my FT handle on here.

Armstrong,Aldrin, Collins.

The EPITOME of what NASA, and the whole country stood behind.

When Apollo 8 first orbited the moon, it was Lovell, Borman and Anders....I was 10 years old, living in another country, and listened to the Christmas address from the 3 astronauts.

It changed my life.

Free MEN with the spirit of exploration, with the backing of a whole country tend to do that for me.

I miss 1968.

Anonymous said...

I agree that for Neil to speak on it he must feel very strong about it.....as I do!

Jim said...

Armstrong's opposition raises the ante considerably. I think it will force those on the appropriations committees of both Houses to focus very hard on what the White House is asking for. Mikulski, Shelby, Mollohan and Aderholt all know that Armstrong is very reluctant to express himself in political matters, so his coming out against the White House plan has a certain gravitas that others do not. Thank you Neil.

Anonymous said...

I just can't believe that astronauts who went to the moon know more about the space program than a community organizer...

Anonymous said...

How could astronauts that went to the moon know more about the space program than a community organizer??

Anonymous said...

we need to mine the helium 3 off the moon before someone else does.

Anonymous said...

Obama's NASA budget perfectly captures the difference in spirit between Kennedy's liberalism and Obama's.

Kennedy's was an expansive, bold, outward-looking summons. Obama's is a constricted, inward-looking call to retreat.

Fifty years ago, Kennedy opened the New Frontier. Obama has just shut it.

Anonymous said...

Haven't you all heard, we dont need to go back to the moon.
We and others are already there.
NASA is a cover up for what is really going on.
No way would America give up their supremacy on space flight with NASA, unless they have another secret agency with more advanced space craft.
Private sector agencies have demonstrated that achieving space flight is not as expencive or complicated as NASA lead us to believe.
So Mr. Obama would rather spend your tax money on the American peoples needs here on earth ,rather than waste it on a smoke screen for what is really going on called Nasa.

Anonymous said...

This decision is only going to fuel (rather compelling) conspiracy theories that 'someone else' got to the moon first and are already mining useful substances such as helium 3,and that earthlings were warned off returning. The most realistic means of getting humans to Mars surely involves final assembly of a spacecraft on, and launching from, the moon - unless another 'anti gravity' (or somesuch) method of propulsion has been invented.

Ray Cheshire said...

Aren't we being a little nationalistic about this? Practically every economy on Earth has problems- I'd love for my own country (the UK) to have a proper space programme but it will never happen. We can't afford it. If we're all being truly honest with ourselves no nation on Earth can truly afford to run a space programme on it's own. So either we all club together as a planet or we recognise human exploration of space for what it is: a distraction. Let's sort out issues on this planet before we try and explore/colonise space. How many trillions would the US, UK etc save by not being in Iraq and Afghanistan? I often wonder if the conflict in SE Asia (VietNam, Laos, Kampuchea etc) was the real reason behind the ending of the Apollo programme (did it really matter that public opinion was bored with the Moon landings....I'm sure they were equally unhappy with body counts from SE Asia). I'm not against space exploration ...it can continue with robots/probes etc but the horrendously expensive human exploration of space needs to be put on hold whilst we sort things out on the home world!

Anonymous said...

Americans do make me laugh, you care more about space flight and space exploration then you do about your own country.

Obama has actually got something right, what the hell does a recluse, a hasbeen and a never really was actually know.

Do they seriously think that the most important thing in the world is "lets go back to the moon again" its been done, or has Neil got so senial that he forgot. At least someone in the States has realised that the country comes first.

Jacob H said...

I've seen this via a link from the BBC in the UK. I totally agree with Niel Armstrong. I was 10 when the Moon landings happened and have looked to America to lead the way ever since. Push your politicians to get him to change "YES WE CAN!!!"

Anonymous said...

Obama does not understand, Space exploration has never been about cost, it has always been about the dream of eexploring the unknown, to what out there, as the universe is so vast and so much is unknown. if we are just going to turn tail with our legs between us because of cost then what is the point of the space program. what is the point of being human. There once was a dream top explore strange new worlds, to go boldly where no man has gone before where has that dream gone it has dioed out.

Anonymous said...

There is more to being in space than national pride and the lust to explore. It also comes down to resources and having the high ground. whever has the high ground will normally win and looking at our planets dwindling resources we need to be up there mining asteroids and other planets for what we can. Should we do that we will never be short of natural resources. Let the private sector boys have a go. who knows they may just do it. If not well its down to the chineese.....

Ian Thikill said...

The failure of America to push the frontiers of space is a tragedy. The lack of funding is due to the vast resources wasted on the Military. Every dollar spent on weapons of war is a dollar that could be spent raising the standards of living for the average American and pushing the frontiers of science for all.

It is a question of vision. Yes it will cost you, but without advancement there is only decay, the conquest of the solar system is our destiny.

Graham (england) said...

I will say this. Read these three knowledgeable mens statement, and think carefully about what they are saying.My own view is i said Obama got it wrong BIG TIME and now i know he has BIG TIME. When Neil Armstrong says it you better think again.!!! And lovel and cernan.

Graham (england) said...

I hope Mr barbree sent a copy of the letter to the president. He needs to get the message.!.

PIETRO ELS said...

AMERICA IS TURNING ITS BACK ON THE FUTURE!