President Barack Obama's space conference next month in Florida is a welcome opportunity for him to clarify a proposed overhaul of the U.S. human spaceflight program and its potential impact on the Space Coast, local leaders said Sunday.Some hope the April 15 event -- whose location and participants have not yet been disclosed -- signals the president may entertain changes to a plan that has been extremely unpopular in Brevard County.
The proposed cancellation of NASA's Constellation moon program could worsen already huge job losses expected at Kennedy Space Center after the shuttle's retirement this year or next, from 7,000 to 9,000, according to Brevard Workforce estimates.
Others expect Obama to fill in detail that was lacking in a 2011 budget proposal unveiled last month, which would increase NASA's budget by $6 billion over five years.
Check out the story James Dean wrote for this morning's print edition of Florida Today by clicking HERE.
3 comments:
The plan is they haven't really got one !. Pure and simple.
Caveat: I have never been an Obama fan.
That said, we could go thru a change and come out of it stronger, more enthusiastic. NASA has ignored safety too many times and has added complexity w/o counting costs. Commercial firms could provide boosters and get our crews into space, probably more safely than NASA could.
The problem we have is that the process has thrown the entire community into chaos and confusion! The commercial firms were working towards a support role where they lifted cargo - and now they need to ramp UP to cargo and crew!! SpaceX has used leftover parts to hold down costs - when they increase their lanunch rate they will have to build new tanks, etc. We were gonna have an Orion capsule - now maybe Lockheed will complete it by themselves? Maybe the Boeing capsule will be completed? What facilities will be available? What will be the role of the government people - inspecting for safety? Setting safety standards? Will government test stands be available? Etc.
Now the government people have been blindsided, a professionally managed change would have one side taper off and the other ramp up. Will the government people be off working on science fair projects?
This entire process has been so badly managed that we will take a few years to recover from it.
Thanks President Obama!! Now we know what your Community Organizer experience qualified you to do - put thousands of high tech workers into the blue collar business of laying high speed rail track.
CharlesHouston
There's far too many if's buts and maybe's.To do anything really well in space you need a well thought out and properly executed LONG TERM plan .!!
(wish you would provide a bold type option on here).
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