Ever since NASA's space shuttles were decommissioned we haven't had a way to get into space. There is the option of tagging a ride with the Russian space program and also buying flights on private companies. Well, it looks like NASA is doing the latter. On Thursday Virgin Galactic announced a contract with NASA to shuttle equipment and people up into space. The flight will launch out of New Mexico from Spaceport America with upwards of 1,300 pounds of science equipment.
For those of you that don't know, Virgin Galactic is a commercial space charter. It hopes to launch its first flight into space within a year. Anyone who has $200,000 to spend frivolously can buy a ticket into space and orbit Earth.
I think it was smart of NASA to partner up with Virgin. It's a good way to get around their predicament. Hopefully we can build some new shuttles soon so that this doesn't go on forever though.
5 comments:
First off, wow. I had no idea that companies like Virgin Galactic even existed. It's amazing how far technology has come in the last century.
Second off, personally, I think space exploration is exhilarating and fascinating, but ultimately unnecessary. (Especially considering America's current economic state.) Don't you think those government funds would be put to better use in a different department? Why are we spending millions on NASA explorations when we can't even keep our Earthly economies afloat.
Who knows. Maybe it has something to do with our huge American egos. Newsflash for D.C: The Cold War is over.
Hopefully the government will stop siphoning funds towards moot explorations soon.
I have to agree with Keaton on this one. While I think that space exploration is extremely interesting (it is always my favorite thing to watch on the Science channel) I'm not completely certain we need to spend so much money on it.
I'm writing my term paper on the military budget and where we might be overspending. Similar to a lot of aspects of that, I think that space exploration might not be the best thing to spend our money on now. Lowering unemployment rates, helping fight the downsides of creative destruction, making the country "greener" and furthering technology, health care, and overall living standards for everyone in the U.S. would all be much more beneficial.
I am definitely a plan for the future kind of gal, but I think at this point in time our country needs to plan for the immediate future.
Those are some very interesting comments Keaton and Dani. I agree with both of you. Space has always inerested me and I would love to know what is out there in the vastness of the universe. However, the American government's main priority should be to fix our current problems. I'm all for space exploration as soon as everything is all fixed up!
To begin, I want to state that all previous comments raised excellent points. There needs to be significant budget trimming in the immediate future, if we as a country are to deal with our deficit and our debt. I must disagree though with the desire to cut funding for NASA as well in such budget trimming. This is because there is an inherent reason that the American government has chosen to finance the NASA program, and a reason why the program has persevered so long. Space exploration represents so very much to humanity, and maybe more so to America in particular. When Kennedy announced his intentions to have a man on the moon within the decade, Americans were filled with inspiration and pride. Eliminating the program that brought us international glory would be a major blow to America’s pride. On another point, if we are to cut spending in an attempt to address the deficit, why NASA? Funding for the sciences and space programs represents – a fraction – of our federal budget, negligible compared to Social Security, Medicare, or defense. As Mr. Silton pointed out during the online budget lab, where we experimented with fudging the budget spending, it was nearly impossible to affect any real change without cutting spending in the aforementioned big three sections. Finally, and I may be alone in this view, I can’t discern a true dividing line between spending on education, and spending on the sciences and NASA. If hope for our nation resides within the future and our youth, why cut into the sciences? Technology is almost always a major factor in the economy, and improvements there can have positive externalities for all. NASA, even in this example, is in the business of science and discovery, and the proliferation of new technologies. How better to improve our economy than to invest in research into new technologies? Technology spurs increases in productivity, which is vital to the American economy if we are to continue to compete on a global scale with countries such as China. If polled, most students now would protest cuts in the education budget, citing that our nation’s future is intrinsically tied to that of our youth, and that an educated work force represents the hope that one day, real change can be affected for the betterment of our nation’s future. Then why would we support cuts into the science and NASA budgets, when they produce new technology that is just as crucial to the growth and maintenance of our struggling economy, and our future as a whole?
I know my comment's a bit late, but I heartily agree with Alex on this (and would like to commend him on a very well-put post).
While spending on items that have no immediate foreseeable payoff does seem a tad irrational, especially given the current economic climate, as Keaton pointed out, I think it's still important to keep an eye out for the future and avoid turning a blind eye to all that isn't of the utmost practicality. There will always be alternatives to spending on programs like NASA, whether that spending is deficit or surplus. The value in NASA (and science/technology in general) is that that's the key to the future--to our future. The students of today will be the technological experts, the problem solvers, of tomorrow. And lets face it--the world today has a lot of problems just waiting to be tackled. What better way to recognize this and encourage work toward that end than continued support of programs that foster just that kind of ingenuity, creativity, and problem-solving skill set?
I guess this has kind of diverged from the NASA-Virgin Galactic topic to just a general pro-NASA post, but...FIRST Robotics has taught me well, I guess.
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