Home
It’s truly a mournful period in the proud history of America’s space program. For the United States, human spaceflight began on May 5, 1961 with a suborbital flight of the Freedom 7 spacecraft by Alan Shepard. It ended with Christopher Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandra Magnus, and Rex Walheim aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 21, 2011. President Kennedy boldly challenged NASA, and if President Obama has his way, he’ll scrap NASA and distribute its wealth… or sell it to China.
And before any of you Liberal cocks out there flood my email with comments, I’m fully aware that President Bush ordered the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet. However, Bush Jr. fully supported the Constellation program that would have replaced the Shuttle. It was ol’ Mr. Hope & Change himself that promptly canceled Constellation bringing the inevitable end to American-manned spaceflight for the foreseeable future… taking thousands of jobs with it!
I’m four and a half decades old — born in the middle of the Cold War — and cannot recall a time that NASA hasn’t been putting Americans (and others) in space. I’ve been enamored with NASA my entire life, especially the manned spaceflights.
In 1969, I was at my grandparent’s house in Philadelphia while they were watching the television coverage of Apollo 11. I was only three years old, but moments after Neil Armstrong hopped off the lander, I was at the front door of their house looking up at the sky, trying to see the man on the moon. At least that’s how the story went. I may have been too young to recall that personally, but I somehow remember it. But I do remember when Skylab was falling out of the sky, and whenever it was time for science projects in school, I immediately went to the missions of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. My Dad was constantly getting printed photos from NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and I remember using those images in a school book report. My Dad even got me Gene Cernan’s autograph!
Living in suburban Pennsylvania as an awkward teenager, I clearly remember watching hours and hours of television coverage of Space Shuttle Enterprise test free flights and the first-ever launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981. Eventually, Shuttle missions became so routine that their launches were only mentioned on the evening news. “President Ronald Reagan declares May ‘National Child Safety Awareness Month,’ people in the south continue their protest of Coca Cola for changing the formula of their beloved soft drink, and Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center. Here’s Tom with the weather.” Sad indeed.
On January 28, 1986, I was standing on an icy street corner on a bitter cold morning in West Chester, Pennsylvania. My friend and I were waiting for the 104 bus to take us to the city. I don’t remember if the bus didn’t show up, or we got tired of freezing our asses off. But I do remember getting home to news that Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. Like most Americans I watch in disbelief, shocked that we could suffer a loss so great. Of course, the non-stop news coverage was all over the tragedy then, weren’t they? I recall they covered the “Teacher in Space” like she was the lone member on board. It’s nice to see Main Stream Media has improved since the mid-80s. </sarcasm>
I was working at a Philadelphia Radio Shack nearly three years later when Space Shuttle Discovery returned us to space in 1988. Years later, I was home watching the landing of Columbia live on television when she disintegrated over Texas February 1, 2003. Being only a year and a half after the September 11 attacks, I wondered at the time (like most of us did) if the Columbia disaster was an act of terrorism… which it wasn’t. Two and a half years later, I was glued to NASA TV when Discovery, yet again, shouldered the job of returning Americans back to space in 2005. Good ol’ Discovery was the fleet’s workhorse!
After 135 missions, the Shuttle program has been shuttered, never to fly again. Its three remaining orbiters have been promised to museums around the country. And thanks to Porkulus or the Tax, Rape, Pillage, and Spend More Than We Have Act of 2010, America has no immediate plans to replace the Shuttle. Instead, we’ll have to ride with the Russians on Soyuz spacecraft, like some sandal-wearing hippie looking to hitch a ride to a fuckin’ Phish concert. Gas, Grass, or Ass: No one rides for free.
The goddamn Russian Roscosmos, really? The same Russian Federal Space Agency that had two — TWO! — satellite launches end failure just five and eight months ago? The same Space Agency that only built five of the eleven spacecraft planned in 2010, and had six spacecraft for civilian purposes fail to launch in 2010? The same assclowns that put rich civilians on their spacecrafts, like they’re a galactic taxi company? Please!
Obama has officially signaled to the world that America has thrown in the towel and waved the white flag of surrender. He’s given our plums to the Chinese! In 1961, a President Johnson report stated, “It is man, not mere machines, in space that captures the imagination of the world.” This has proven true every single time! Yuri Gagarin, Alan Sheppard, Ed White, Sally Ride, Neil Armstrong, John Young and Robert Crippen, and Story Musgrave among others, have definitely captured the imagination of the world. Now, that task lies in the hands of the socialists and communists, with names like Vladimir Iliykdrinkinvokov and Bol Son Chin. Good job, Mr. President.
