Legendary Mercury astronaut John Glenn will be meeting with President Obama at the White House today to discuss the future of the U.S. human space flight program.Glenn, who became the first American to orbit Earth in February 1962, recently released a white paper that calls on the Obama Administration to keep the shuttle fleet flying until replacement craft can be fielded.
In the paper, Glenn agreed with the president's plan to extend International Space Station operations until 2020. But he voiced considerable concern about the administrations intent to shift the responsibility for ferrying astronauts to and from the $100 million station from NASA to commercial companies.
Glenn said the U.S. should keep its shuttle fleet flying until commercial companies can field safe and reliable space taxis for round trips to the outpost. As it stands, the U.S. will pay Russia to fly American astronauts to and from the station until commercial space taxis can be developed and tested -- a period that likely would span three and seven years.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA photo of John Glenn suiting up for a 1998 mission aboard the shuttle Discovery. On the flight, Glenn, then 77, became the oldest person to fly in space.
28 comments:
Oh this ought to be good. Obama will greet him, do the photo ops, get behind closed doors, then tell him get out of here ol man. Your glory days are over. We don't need any more manned flights. Not on my watch! He is just doing this to apease the public perception that he is considerate of the last remaining Mercury guys who are still alive so he looks good.
Thanks John for at least trying. Too bad he doesn't give a rat about you think or any other of the great men and women who flew in space.
IT IS A BIG WASTE OF MONEY ANYWAY...TIME FOR THESE GUYS TO GET REAL JOBS...MAYBE THEY SHOULD ALL JOIN THE MILITARY..
Glenn wasn't complaining over 20 years ago while the Defense Contractors sold a bill-of-goods to the US Tax Payer called the Shuttle Program
The Defense Contractors Rockewell International, Boeing and Lockheed made a pile of money selling that junk that never did anything but kill 14 Astronauts and float around in low earth orbit.
After Rockewell International, Boeing and Lockheed made their pile of cash they split town and created United Space Alliance which has no stock and nobody knows who owns it so when they crash no one is to blame for it.
By the way, Low Earth Orbit was achieved by Gleen before Armstrong ever set foot on the moon so that was old news.
The truth is that NASA = a GLORIFIED SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAM.
Recently those opposed to the Health Care overhaul are now protesting loosing their Govt Welfare Program called the Shuttle Program
Glenn should have complained to Bush before Bush spent all our money looking for WMD.
Whats next- Danica Patrick meting with DOT about highway funding?
Ridiculous..
Annoymous why not proud of you comments
The Shuttle worked great no other country could match its perfromance
God love John Glenn he was great back in the day when this all started, but the party is over. They cannot MILK the system no more.They will have to get layed off just like all of us at U.S.A. They will have to stand in the soup line like everybody else. There is no more tax payers to fund the programs everybody is getting layed off like the middle class. So there is going to be a 3rd mission so they can milk the system one more time.There are so many people just sitting around doing nothing and getting payed for it.
"The Defense Contractors Rockewell International, Boeing and Lockheed made a pile of money selling that junk that never did anything but kill 14 Astronauts"
Probably one of the dumbest things I have ever read on the internet.
You are so right they are not a company Lockheed or Rockwell International or Boeing. We was transferred from California from Boeing to U.S.A. but when we got to Florida it was not Boeing go figure that one out. So are sinority of 20 yrs we had to start from day one. They screwed people right from the beginning. Just a little trivia.They cannot hurt me no more so I tell it like it is.They have hurt a lot of people in the past and it still goes on as I write. NASA is not any better.I loved the work but I hated the system.
I like these few idiots slamming the space shuttle program because it costs money... THis money pays for peoples salaries here in the USA. You know these people, they then purchase goods and services from local economys... I guess these complaing idiots would rather send a russia the money and keep russians happy so they can one day get enough money and start point nukes at the USA AGAIN! If you want to complain about money, grip about OBAMA sending Pakastain 10 BILLION dollars earlier this year just because... What did you get from that? NOTHING! SO SHUT UP AND EDUCATE YOURSELF INSTEAD OF COMPLAIN... I RESPECT AND ADMIRE OUR SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM AND HOPE SOMEONE SOMEWHERE MAKES A INTELLIGENT DECISION AND KEEPS THEM FLYING!
The Shuttle program should not be extended; it's killed 14 astronauts and the CAIB said it will do so again.
John Glenn is not qualified to comment on space policy. Great comment about Danica Patrick - although if she spoke about highway funding I would listen :).
Anon @2:53....you not speaka so well the English, no?
It just occured to me why the Internet is so popular...
MORONS can finally afford to be heard.
The military is an even bigger "social welfare program," but you never hear anyone whining about that. Why do we have SO many installations and personnel stationed abroad in parts of the world where we aren't even engaged in hostilities? The Middle East makes sense. Everywhere else other than HOME is a huge waste of tax dollars. How about sealing OUR borders and protecting OUR people? At least we get huge technological and economic benefits from the space program. NASA's budget is a drop in the bucket when you compare it to the massive waste that goes on in all other areas of government, and from which we derive almost NO benefit.
NASA = Social Welfare Program with a side of Huge Profit for Defense Contractors
In other words a huge rip-off!
Anon 2:01 - Antagonist you are such a broken record that even a casual reader of FT's comments knows it's you.
It'll be fun (in a sick, twisted way) to watch this area's decline and listen to folks like yourself cry when the 'glorified social welfare program' disappears.
Anon 3:18 And the new program will kill less? I hope you are right, but to believe that manned space is without serious risk is naive to say the least. More will die and many more will volunteer even so. Ask an astronaut what they'd risk to go into space.
The sad truth is, most of the haters on here really have no opinion, they just get their kicks by becoming fecal agitators.
The budget for spaceflight was totally different in Glenns day. We were competing with the Soviets so money wasn't an object during the Cold War. Attempting to compare the two eras is wrong. These are totally different times that call for totally different methods to get it done. The glory days of NASA are over and people must learn to adjust to it instead of living in the past. For the near future anyway, unmanned flights are appropriate to accomplish many goals.
No Public Option Health care for all then No Glorified Social Welfare Program for the few.
John Glenn is the right guy to advise Obama on the space program. Maybe they can fit the shuttle with extra boosters so we can go to the moon with it, and then we won't have to make new rockets.
This place is barely worth reading let alone adding a comment to it.. the same old people writing the same tired comments, negativity to the max..
With that being said, the problem with all the presidential appointed leaders today it the basic mistrust of Obama and his staff, he lies have been well documented, discussed on the blogs arcoss the country, and on FOX.. these are verifiable facts with just a little effort..
The most concerning problem is the Lack of mainstream media coverage of the same stories, it should be obvious to anyone interested in their country that the media has decided to no longer be jurnalists, but political lobbists posing as news reporters.
The comments made my NASA chief Charlie Bolden as symptoms of the poltical system where the commander in chief got caught with his hand in the cookie jar by trying to side step his media attention by quietly sending Bolden to go on a International mission praising the muslum's.. Once the internet media got wind of it, the administration found it easy to blame Charlie for a misstatement.. in otherwords, he became the wipping boy for the pres.. Charlie had no choice but to just take one for the team, afterall he is his boss.... If he had any pride, he would resign and tell the public the real truth and force egg in the face of CBS, ABC and NBC..
Of course they would just call him a disgruntaled employee...
Bottom line, the people of ths country have every reason to distrust this president and his staff and many congressman.. We are tired of this lack of representation!
NASA = Social Welfare Program with a side of Huge Profit for Defense Contractors
In other words a huge rip-off!
Fire them ALL to Infinity and Beyond! They're just a bunch of overpaid free-loaders not making any progress in space exploration. The Space Program has been dead for years and NASA leaders all know it.
Anon @6:19. You are good! Impossible to say it better.
Where can I get an Obama 2012 bumper sticker?
I wish I had a bunch of them because we are sick of the holier than thou Republicans who want their Govt Programs while denying others Health Care.
The Shuttle was a great scientific achievement .the only losses were caused by human failure to fix existing problems not addressed .TGo take off and build a Space station ,launch three observatories including the Hubble ,which it repaired twice with Manned crews and actually usually glided back to earth to its start point like a glider. Brilliant .Designed in 1970's ,the Shuttle was asked to serve far beyond its time due to our short sightedness .But if we had continued Obamas cancelled Ares and Constellation we would have been fine .The detractors of the Shuttle are the people who skate thru like never doing the hard things ,complaining about everything .
.... Sure hope Putin does not cut us off from our own station .That would just prove another of Barry's purposeful blunders
The Shuttle was a major accomplishment in the 1970's when it was designed .Building the Space Station ,launching Hubble and other flying labs and Humans repairing them .The Ares and Constellation were a scheduled follow on to keep us in the forefront of our 50 year success in space .We know who cancelled them ,now only the Russians can get US Astronauts to space ,how dumb is that ,very.
The Shuttle was a major accomplishment in the 1970's when it was designed .Building the Space Station ,launching Hubble and other flying labs and Humans repairing them .The Ares and Constellation were a scheduled follow on to keep us in the forefront of our 50 year success in space .We know who cancelled them ,now only the Russians can get US Astronauts to space ,how dumb is that ,very.
NASA BUDGET CUTS > REAPING WHAT THEY SOWED.
NASA SPACE PROGRAM = GLORIFIED SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAM
Any job is a privilege, not a right or entitlement. ALL Contract workers are aware that their jobs were for the duration of a project & not permanent. There is no justification for manned space flight. It's time is over. Even so, we'll still send people into space for some pointless reason. The manned space program started as a cold war tool, exploration was a side benefit. It's been on the down slope since Apollo 11. We are not ceding space "supremacy" (whatever that means) to anyone, especially not its military aspect. The military does not need NASA for anything, nor do we need to send people into space for national defense. China has had three manned flights since October 2003; so much for their ravenous space ambitions. Let the commercial market put people in space; Space X, LM, ULA or Orbital can handle it. The enormous NASA bureaucracy and hubris just gets in the way of progress. NASA: too many people, making too much money, doing too little, running on the fumes of past glory.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday Russia would earmark 800 million dollars to kick off the construction of a new cosmodrome
Clearly Putin gets it and plans for the future .Unlike O----.
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