NASA Outsourcing Space Travel to Russia

"Dismantling of the shuttle program is right on track." Replacement not so much.

Unfortunately with a clueles Cheney administration, NASA has no replacement ready and needs a waiver to law to buy Russian launch vehicles, [A little-known law intended to prevent the sale of nuclear technology to Iran would also bar NASA from buying Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011..."

"It takes 36 months to fulfill an order," said Yevgeny Khorishko, the Russian Embassy spokesman in Washington. "So if U.S. Congress does not grant a waiver by the end of September, it means your astronauts in 2012 will be preparing for their missions on the ground and will not be flying."](emphasis added)

So after 50 years of NASA exploring space and making Americans proud, Pres. Cheney has reduced the US to paying Russia for reaching orbit.

One can argue the US space shuttle program has become broken beyond repair and requires replacing, basically because it got built for unrealistic aims: building a totally reuseable spacecraft.

So what does NASA do to replace the shuttle? Retire it before any US made alternative becomes ready and try to privatize US space travel.

This administration tried privatizing US space travel..

So while jobs at NASA and contractors get cut, taxpayers pay millions of $ to private companies to try to develop spacecraft, including 1 company, SpaceX that built a rocket that "fizzled" on the third test rather than reach orbit.

At least that company, Space X, launched and failed. Planet Space hasn't actually built a damn thing.

Let's lay it out: Tried to privatize US space flight.

Failed.

(For irony, SpaceX launches from U.S. Army's Reagan Test Site in the central Pacific Ocean.}

Americans get laid off and the US has to pay Russia to fly to space

For those too young too remember, the space race with Russia became one of the dominant themes in the 60's and 70's, not just for the US but the civilized world.

Now we gotta pay the godless commies to fly. Despicable

[In April, NASA said more than 8,000 space contractor jobs -- including 1,300 at Michoud and 6,400 at KSC -- could be eliminated after the shuttle is retired to make way for the Constellation program, which is developing the next-generation rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars.

But whereas the Constellation program is encountering technical problems and some schedule delays, the dismantling of the shuttle program is right on track.]http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/08/a-taste-of-thin.html

[(Former astronaut and senator John)Glenn used the hearing as chance to lash out at the Bush administration for failing to provide leadership on space, and failing to request adequate funding for his Vision for Space Exploration. He accused the administration of “cannibalizing” research on the international space station to pay for NASA’s next generation moon program, called Constellation.

Glenn, who has expressed his anger before at various events, said he was deeply upset by the administration permitting a gap between the end of the shuttle program in 2010 and the first launch of the Constellation program, now scheduled for 2015 at the earliest. He said the decision made America dependent on the Russians to get American astronauts to the space station until Constellation was ready. He said he never thought “we’d have to pay for a ticket to fly on a Russian vehicle.”]emphasis added
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/07/glenn-bush-moon.html