Lil' Putin says... "No mo' rockets for US".....so what's next?

[polydeuces]

Putins little venture in Ukraine is having interesting aftershocks.
As our relationship slowly augers into a burning tailspin our 'free' ride could be yanked any time plus they're talking about bailing on the ISS after '20. Who saw that one coming........

So one of the lesser anticipated ones could be NASA (never one to be afraid to ask for $$$$$….) getting increased funding, for obvious reasons.
Now if they only could start running it like a business, following some freshly set examples - but I digress.
And look, congress finally woke up.......Dûh...
http://www.space.com/25900-congress-...e-station.html

Interesting re the RS-180 rocket, really fascinating how the media just doesn't do their due diligence; this was already a major issue in 2013, so I guess they're just looking for a horse to kick
http://www.space.com/25900-congress-...e-station.html
Instead of throwing them our cash, how's about 'developing' our own motor, jeeeeez.....like a nice juicy F1.....'member?

So the question I pose is; would we be wise to throw more $$ at NASA, or better off boost the spending in the private sector, moving up the schedule a bit to get their hardware manrated asap.

Or....... should we increase effort for better international cooperation. (whatever than would mean).

Let's consider both LEO as well as more lonng distance/duration missions.
And how's about that permanent presence on the Moon..

[OH58D]

Many believe during the hey day of NASA during the 1960's it was a government program to achieve the Moon Landing. Just for project Apollo alone, there were over 400,000 Americans working for private corporations that served as NASA contractors and sub-contractors. I have a close family member who worked as a NASA liaison engineer with Northrup Ventura in California, designing and testing the Three ring sail parachute recovery system for the Apollo Command Module.

A different White House administration could breath life into BIG thinking again, and use NASA programs to get us back on track, utilizing what is happening in private sector rocket development and related technologies.

[Belmont31R]

NASA has been rotting since the 90's at least but for whatever reason people don't care anymore. I follow them quite a bit and of their active projects they are a tiny image of their former glory.

Maybe Putin cutting off rockets will help this country realize how pathetic we've become.

[SteyrAUG]

I think we need to shelve some of the space program for the time being seeing as how we don't even have our own vehicle. We "should" do this as part of an overall economizing plan until we get our spending under control.

We should also END all NAFTA production in every country and bring those jobs back to the US. We should cut funding to a ton of other crap as well. We should dramatically scale back foreign aid, especially to countries that are openly hostile to us and harbor terrorists.

We have a 10+ year war to pay for and an "in the toilet" economy to do it with.

Once we have balanced the books, then we need to develop a next generation space vehicle. That is assuming the private industry doesn't come up with one first.

[Belmont31R]

I think we need to shelve some of the space program for the time being seeing as how we don't even have our own vehicle. We "should" do this as part of an overall economizing plan until we get our spending under control.

We should also END all NAFTA production in every country and bring those jobs back to the US. We should cut funding to a ton of other crap as well. We should dramatically scale back foreign aid, especially to countries that are openly hostile to us and harbor terrorists.

We have a 10+ year war to pay for and an "in the toilet" economy to do it with.

Once we have balanced the books, then we need to develop a next generation space vehicle. That is assuming the private industry doesn't come up with one first.

Ain't gonna happen. The fraud in welfare is many times more than NASA's entire budget.

Funding NASA properly would actually require DC to address DC's own problems which hasn't happened in decades.

[SteyrAUG]

Ain't gonna happen. The fraud in welfare is many times more than NASA's entire budget.

Funding NASA properly would actually require DC to address DC's own problems which hasn't happened in decades.

You are correct. I was simply stating what would be required.

[Doc Safari]

Virgin Galactic's program or something like it may be the future of space for the US. It will be interesting to see how a commercial venture stacks up against the government space program.

[Belmont31R]

Virgin Galactic's program or something like it may be the future of space for the US. It will be interesting to see how a commercial venture stacks up against the government space program.

Space X is already delivering payloads to ISS. However, outside of government funding, private space ventures will have to be commercial in nature. Harvesting asteroids, trips for millionaires, ect.