Your Reaction To Constellation Beig Cancelled

[Giggleplex777]

The main reason Constellation was started was because Bush wanted to reassure everyone about the American space program in the wake of Columbia disaster. He though that withdrawing from the ISS early and retiring the Space Shuttle program would be enough to compensate for the cost of the program.

...And he was wrong.

Without the funding from the US for the ISS, everything was delayed, which drove the cost up tenfold. Delays within the Constellation program itself sent it way over budget, too. The Space Space ended up being canceled before anything could replace it in the US.

Now, we don't have Space Shuttles, the ISS is only 60% of what it was supposed to be an coated ten times more, and the only way to send astronauts to space is with Soyuz like rockets.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[Mr. Pseudonym]

Why not? There's no real reason to believe solids are, done properly, are any less safe than liquid stages. Far more people have been killed by incidents with liquid stages than solid ones.

Well, tell that to the people who strap SRBs on their head while drunk on a day of a particular nation's most patriotic day...

But seriously, if you put the number of flights (in PROPORTION!) with incidents involving Liquids, and then put it side by side with Solids, the stats might not be what you think.

Could someone do some research on this and find casualties per flight caused by liquid fuel rockets and compare it to casualties per flight caused by solid fuel rockets?

[Kryten]

But seriously, if you put the number of flights (in PROPORTION!) with incidents involving Liquids, and then put it side by side with Solids, the stats might not be what you think.

Could someone do some research on this and find casualties per flight caused by liquid fuel rockets and compare it to casualties per flight caused by solid fuel rockets?

That wouldn't really work, as a very large proportion of the casualties I'm talking about didn't involve flights at all. For example, one incident involved a Titan II missile exploding in it's silo during maintenance work. The accident is clearly attributable to the propulsion system (a leak of fuel ignited), but if it hadn't happened the rocket would have just sat in the silo until it was scrapped.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Kryten

[Explorator]

I wish we could do something. There is just simply not enough american interest to petition.

[NASAFanboy]

I wish we could do something. There is just simply not enough american interest to petition.

There was three different bills made up by House Republicans that pretty much restored the entire Constellation program, only this time using the SLS and a bigger budget (Bad years for Earth and Planetary Science thogh, they would be strapped). All either got shot down by the Democrats, or dropped off the radar and got buried in a grave of red tape.

Nevertheless, Congress recently passed a bill that forbids a future POTUS from canceling "important NASA programs" (SLS, Orion, James Webb Telescope, 2020 Mars Rover) and adds a extra five hundred million to their funds by allowing companies to use their project termination budget. And if that wasn't enough, both parties quickly agreed on a higher budget for NASA in a very rare bipartisan agreement. And said budget includes money for precursor work on a Europa mission.

Progress is being made on the political front.

It's up to the teenagers today to study hard and become good engineers. Then we go to Mars

[TheRabbit]

I bet Obama's middle name is Dan...

Woah, lets not be calling anyone that.

In all seriousness, NASA needs a big goal set for itself. The partial reasoning that I'm on my iPod typing this now is because of the advances in computer technology during the Apollo era. The fact that I can call someone on the opposite side of the world with little delay is brilliant. Maybe someday we can have no delay because of advances in this asteroid mission. I do hope that the world opens its eyes to the new frontier, the final frontier.

[mythbusters844]

Oh, 2010? Um...I wasn't into space news back then...I was a kanewb.

Though I really wish it wasn't canceled. I mean, look at the progress! TMA (couldn't resist)