Oct 14 2010

Obama Is Outsourcing Our Space Program And Aerospace Jobs To Russia

Incompetence and Incoherence. That is going to be the epitaph of this liberal congress and administration.

In a bleak economy that is starving for jobs that not only pay really well, but also provide an edge to America across global economies, this administration and congress are shutting down America’s manned space program and out-sourcing the jobs to Russia. I know – sounds too dumb to even be true. What kind of fools would shutter the manned space program and outsource all the jobs to Russia?

Incompetent and Incoherent fools – a.k.a. Democrats in DC. The picture above is a fitting shot of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as seen against the Sun at high magnification. It appears to be sailing into the sunset. (You can click the image to get the back story behind the picture). Fitting, since The Shuttle Program is ending. The aging fleet of remaining work horses that fly human beings into space is being retired. And up until the Democrats took office NASA was going back to the Apollo days with the Shuttle replacements.

The program is/was called Constellation, and it is/was well under way with real shovel-ready projects under contract, up and running. Metal was being bent, SW was being written, prototypes were built and used to test options and reduce risk. The program was meant to continue America’s premier leadership in human space exploration. The first systems would continue to support the International Space Station. Then there were going to be exploration sorties to the Moon or asteroids to prepare for humankind’s journey to the stars. Some of the systems under contract are seen in the picture below (click images to enlarge).

These are the launch, crew and cargo vehicles that were going to send humans into the final frontier. In addition to these, there were designs being worled on rovers, landers, power systems, food production systems, mining systems, maintenance depots, etc required to go with humanity in the great beyond.

I had the opportunity to work the communications architecture for Constellation and it was exciting, ground breaking work. The technology off-shoots would have kept US industry in the lead in a myriad of industries and service areas for a quarter century or more. But the short sightedness of the DC liberals ended all of that this year. Instead of investing in humanity’s exploration of space, and this country’s broad technology base, we will outsource the transportation of our astronauts and their equipment to Russia:

The U.S. Discovery shuttle, the last in NASA’s Space Shuttle series and the 113th over the project’s nearly 3-decade-long history, has been brought to a launch pad in the United States, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency says.Once the shuttle program is shut down, crews and cargoes will be delivered to the International Space Station entirely by Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

Tens of thousands of US high tech jobs are being lost in this idiotic move. ‘Shovel-ready‘ gets no more ready than already under contract and building the damn things. After $2.5 trillion dollars in deficit spending, the geniuses in DC have not only ended American superiority in human space exploration, they moved all these cherished jobs to Russia.

Can anyone listen to the Democrat spin machine about jobs and outsourcing knowing what they did to NASA and pool of engineers who have kept this nation at the head of humanity’s drive to explore the reaches of space? I know I can’t. I know our small company has seen a bright future with good growth (read ‘jobs’) devastated thanks to this kind of incompetent and incoherent strategy. If the dimwits screwed up when we had the global lead and the work in progress, what makes anyone think they can fix health care or the economy or energy policy? Their answer is jobs with shovels in ditches along roads (not a bad job, having myself work many years in construction). But why take the high tech jobs and ship them overseas???

Incompetent and Incoherent.

Previous Posts:

Our Dream Is Dead
Obama – The Job Killer

11 responses so far

11 Responses to “Obama Is Outsourcing Our Space Program And Aerospace Jobs To Russia”

  1. tarpon says:

    What do you expect of someone who is paid by the ChiComs.

  2. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dan Spencer and AJ Strata, Free To Prosper. Free To Prosper said: Obama Is Outsourcing Our Space Program And Aerospace Jobs To Russia http://bit.ly/bIYdcj :: Strata-sphere […]

  3. WWS says:

    Can you imagine what John F. Kennedy would have said, the JFK who stood up to Kruschev in Cuba, who did more than any other President to back our Space Program and to send America to the moon, what HE would have said if you had told him that in 50 years the DEMOCRATS would be shutting down HIS space program and shipping all of it – TO RUSSIA????

    He would have told you that you were some kind of insane conspiracy theory Bircher or something like that, since no sane person could ever imagine such a thing happening.

    Oh how the world has turned – “What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools predicted has come to pass.”

  4. dhunter says:

    Obama and his Merry Band of Socialists are determined to destroy American exceptionalism and ingenuity.

    They are determined to replace thinkers and high tech achievers with uneducated imports so as to cement their majorities by making the American uneducated majorities dependent upon Government for their handouts and survival.

    They want a worker bee and King and Queen society where we all work to support Government and those who know better how to run our lives than us.

  5. dbostan says:

    As an engineer in hi tech and a political refugee from the Eastern Europe, my heart is filled with huge sadness to see how this commie thug and his demshevik party are destroying our once great country.
    A black plague on all of them!

  6. W-GIRL08 says:

    AJ,

    Your post and the Space Program shut down needs to be out there for all to know, especially, before the election.

    Can RUSH, Fox News, Glen Beck, Drudge put the word out ?? This closing could actually be the “October Surprise” the Democrats need to push them in the quicksand and bury them there !!

    ALL Americans, (let me qualify that- who love this Country) will be outraged with Obama & the Democrats over this news !!

    Bad enough they tried to turn NASA into a Muslim University but handing over, our space tech, to the ENEMY is more than anyone can tolerate !!

  7. Mike M. says:

    I can only half agree, AJ.

    Obama’s trying to ultimately shift LEO manned spaceflight to commercial carriers is a good thing. The problem was that he gave the Soviets the keys to space in the meantime.

    I never liked Constellation – precisely because it was Apollo thinly warmed over. Better to invest in advanced reusable and propulsion technologies. Maybe keep the Ares V booster…it’s the moving van of the space program. The Shuttle program got into trouble trying to be all things to all people. An 85% solution, with the largest payloads launched on an expendable booster, would have cut costs dramatically.

  8. archtop says:

    Don’t worry – with the money saved by axing the Constellation, Obama plans to fund more important science activities – you know, like the essential National Climate Service!

  9. AJStrata says:

    Mike M,

    When will you stop assuming Obama actually means what he says instead of simply diverting criticism.

    Do you know of any well funded NASA program to replace Orion and Altair with a commercial competition? There are NONE! Just a lot of cheap studies. He put all that money into global warming missions (something we have a ton of already).

  10. WWS says:

    “Obama’s trying to ultimately shift LEO manned spaceflight to commercial carriers is a good thing.”

    Gotta agree with AJ – Obama’s “plan” to shift to the private sector involved destroying our existing space program completely and then just kinda sorta hoping something turns up from someone else, even though he’s not going to have anything to do with it.

    That’s actually his long term plan for everything.

    And yeah, in about 30 or 40 years something probably will. But by then the only destination they’ll have will be the permanent orbital observation and manufacturing platforms owned by the Chinese and the Russians.

    Just as Portugal started the exploration of the New World but then lost all of it to others who were more willing to do the work of exploiting it, so the US has lost “the final frontier”.

  11. patrioticduo says:

    If Obama says he wants to push jobs out of a Government funded program and into private enterprise then you *know* he’s lying. Why do people fail to comprehend this simple principle?