Buzz Aldrin 'disappointed' in America's progress
since Apollo 11: 'We have the No. 1 rocket and
spacecraft and they can’t get into lunar orbit'
Fox News,
by
Chris Ciaccia
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
7/19/2019 4:54:42 PM
Speaking at a White House event honoring Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, said he's "disappointed" with the progress America's space program has made over the past 50 years. "[I'm] disappointed in the progress in the past 50 years," Aldrin said at the event held in the Oval Office. "We had a rocket, the Saturn 5. We have the [number one] rocket and spacecraft and they can’t get into lunar orbit. That’s a great disappointment to me." NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who was also at the event, said the space agency is "working on it." (Photo)
Reply 1 - Posted by:
DVC 7/19/2019 5:07:22 PM (No. 128431)
The man is absolutely correct. It is a political problem.
I am still very sad about the fact that we had (IIRC) three full sets of flight hardware (rockets, capsules, landers, lunar rovers) built and paid for, and the crews trained for more moon missions and the damned Democrat Congress pulled the funding. It would have been the last 5% to cover fuel and manpower, recovery ops only. And yet they cancelled it all. The worthless, small minded, short sighted SOBs.
27 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 7/19/2019 5:14:15 PM (No. 128440)
Returned from the moon and spent the next 47 years orbiting the Earth. Just like Project Mercury in 1961.
12 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Imright 7/19/2019 5:16:28 PM (No. 128442)
FTA: "Imagine my delight when I drove by the #WashingtonMonument and saw our rocket projected on its exterior for the #ApolloXI 50th Anniversary." (Buzz Aldrin)
9 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 7/19/2019 6:17:26 PM (No. 128490)
Um, Mr. Aldrin I sincerely hope you werent one of the ones who voted to put Barak Hussein Obama into the WH for 8 years. If you did, there's your answer right there: "muslim outreach."
Not our fault.
I also dont think we should be trying to put people on Mars when we havent even accomplished our ORIGINAL intent to set up a station ON the moon. There's tons of things about the moon that havent even been explored and/or developed yet, but somehow MARS is the new play toy.
Not what I want my tax money going towards...
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
franq 7/19/2019 6:36:40 PM (No. 128500)
The moon is made of green cheese. That's about the benefit of putting humans back there. We have limited money. Period. If you want to start a Go Fund Me, have at it.
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
anonymous 7/19/2019 6:46:24 PM (No. 128503)
It costs money to travel into space. When they get there, they find a pile of rocks. All that money for a pile of rocks doesn't inspire further exploration.
If there is anyone out there in the constellation, they will probably get to us before we get to them.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
kewmac 7/19/2019 6:52:33 PM (No. 128505)
I am pretty disappointed in what this country has done with itself over the past 50 years and my 'disappointments' are certainly not limited to the space program.
17 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
chumley 7/19/2019 7:31:01 PM (No. 128528)
Space exploration gives us something for our tax money; knowledge, pride, inspiration. Paying money to lazy layabouts or illegal aliens gives us nothing except more of the same.
20 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
web 7/19/2019 7:37:35 PM (No. 128538)
I wasn't aware that there was any progress in our space program. We have a space program? I thought the purpose of NASA was to make muslims feel good about themselves...
We no doubt have made many breakthroughs in technology in 50 years, but the government classifies it all and doesn't allow it to make it to a commercial market. It would probably destroy the current status quo. Cars and airplanes must continue to run on oil and gas, so that life and business goes on as usual.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
3XALADY 7/19/2019 7:40:59 PM (No. 128546)
I was reading recently of all the neat things we have to use today thanks to the space program. Anyone know of any benefits we are enjoying from the muzzie outreach program except for enough of those swine in our country to elect representative to the House?
11 people like this.
#10 - More kebab eateries?
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Kate318 7/19/2019 8:29:57 PM (No. 128578)
I have never, ever understood the we-have-enough-problems-here-on-earth-so-let’s-not-spend-money-on-space-exploration mindset. First if all, those problems we have on earth are never going to be solved. Ever. People will always be poor, homeless, uneducated, at risk, underpaid, hungry, addicted, unhappy, unfulfilled, and on, and on, and on. Second, as some posters have already pointed out, the benefits we have received from the space program are enormous in their secondary applications to life here on earth. And finally, and most important, we are humans. Curiosity and exploration are in our blood. We must explore space, including Mars and beyond, because it’s there. Imagine living in one room in a mansion, and deciding not to explore the rest of the house because you need to conserve heat, or money, or time and energy, or because all you need is right in that one room. What if something you never even knew existed, that could vastly improve your life, could be found in one of those rooms? You explore because it’s there.
20 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 7/20/2019 12:51:05 AM (No. 128654)
I'm all for going to Mars as long as we send The Squad there and leave them.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 7/20/2019 7:09:42 AM (No. 128752)
Thank you, #12, you saved me writing what you have already said so well. The technological and economic advantages of space exploration are well-documented and significant. You can read more about them in the fiction of Robert Heinlein or in his congressional testimony here:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015083085392;view=1up;seq=151;skin=mobile
The rest is simple. Right now we have all our eggs in one basket, both literally and figuratively. Multiple cataclysmic events could end human life on this planet, and one of them will happen eventually. This is a matter of "when," not "whether." Earth will not survive indefinitely and, if we haven't found somewhere else to live in the meantime, neither will we.
I prefer that my species not die whimpering in the darkness.
Fifty years ago today, we walked on the moon. I am immensely grateful that I lived in a time when that was possible, and I am intensely proud that Americans were the ones who did it. Words mean a great deal to me, and I admire our political and literary documents. But perhaps the most important words ever spoken by a human being were "Houston, Tranquility Base here....
The Eagle has landed."
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Jack44 7/20/2019 8:17:19 AM (No. 128820)
To those lamenting the use of tax dollars for space exploration, please recognize that the country's national security rests upon control of space. That, of course, is why the Chinese devote so much of their resources to it.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
lakerman1 7/20/2019 9:37:42 AM (No. 128885)
The shuttle program, I believe, began under Jimmy Carter. The theory was that the shuttles could be re- launched every two weeks, and the program, by hauling commercial loads, would pay for itself.
How did that work out?
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
MDConservative 7/20/2019 11:08:36 AM (No. 128997)
If the US Space program was turned over to the US military, I'd buy the defense argument, a little. But NASA is a civilian agency. As far as the wonderful advances that came from our Space Race years, let's not forget that they were almost exclusively the product of private industry spurred by government dollars. Look at all these 50th anniversary shows and take a look at the NASCAR-esque launch pad and control center. I see shirts emblazoned with Rockwell, IBM, General Dynamics and a long list of other contractors. Government largely just paid the bills.
It's not about "space", as any at-all-costs government project and massive amounts of money can provide the same economic targeted technological benefits. How much, for example, has "space" had to do with modern computer development? Zero, I would suggest.
Ironically, it is private enterprise, not government, that is furthering the manned space effort. Private dollars. And those private dollars are used more effectively and efficiently than any government money would. We trust American private companies to design and develop our most advanced weaponry. We can do the same for space.
2 people like this.
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