Is the reason that Democrats killed the Space Shuttle Program so they could have NASA perform Muslim therapy?

Obama wants NASA to stop spending money on space exploration an instead use it to hand weave flying carpets. Obama is a lunatic!

First of all, because it is time. The Shuttle is today the oldest flying manned spacecraft. Really. The Soyuz maybe looks still the same as it did in 1986, but was internally constantly upgraded, with the Soyuz TMA-M version being in space for its first flight currently. The Shuttle got the last tiny upgrade around 2000, the last big upgrade was in 1987, and still, the Space Shuttle is full of terribly obsolete technology, that is just very hard to be replaced without designing a completely new Space Shuttle. For example the SRBs still rely on 8086 processors. Next, the Space Shuttle is a very limited spacecraft itself. Like Soyuz, which is build as taxi to space stations and back, the Space shuttle was made to build stations or other spacecraft. When the NASA budgets cut reduced more and more, all the other fun stuff was thrown away and only the Space Station was left. Next, the goals changed - the USA want to fly to Moon or Mars (this changes every year), and the Shuttle can't do that, it can't fly further away from Earth than 600 km and can't reenter directly at higher speeds. It is even too expensive for developing new spacecraft while operating the Shuttle at the current budget plans. NASA has the biggest funding of all spaceflight agencies at 18 billion US per year, but still, for what NASA does and what is expected from NASA, this money is nothing. Really. If you would reduce the US Department of Defense Budget by 1%, you could multiply the NASA budget by five. NASA is pretty much the stepchild of all US governments since Johnson. Since Nixon came into power, politicians reduced the budget and increased the demands - when NASA was successful, politicians came around to bath in its light and reduce the budget, when things got tough, NASA was punished by harder budget cuts. So, if you have no money, despite having a 18 billion budget, you need to save money. You need spacecraft that can be operated for less money and are less limited. The original Augustine plan, that Obama embraced, to give much more money to private companies developing capsules (6 billion for 4 years back then), would have been the most economic, but since the spaceflight experts of congress are total dilettantes, this budget item was reduced to 250 million in total, just enough to hire the five Soyuz capsules that NASA wants to buy for bridging the gap until NASAs own spacecraft can fly.

On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, US President George W. Bush announced a new plan for NASA's future, dubbed the Vision for Space Exploration.[40] According to this plan, mankind would return to the Moon by 2018, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The Space Shuttle will be retired in 2010 and Orion may replace it by 2015, capable of both docking with the International Space Station (ISS) and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the ISS is somewhat uncertain—construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear. Although the plan initially met with skepticism from Congress, in late 2004 Congress agreed to provide start-up funds for the first year's worth of the new space vision.[41] --- Wikipedia

Your theory can only hold true if you admit that Bush and the Republican Congress are all part of the evil conspiracy. Weird question.

The remaining shuttles are too old to be safe. And it is getting harder and more expensive to keep trading out the flightworthy "guts" from one to the other to keep up the illusion of an operable fleet. The Space Shuttle has never been about exploration; it never goes anywhere a Mercury capsule couldn't.

The Republicans canceled Apollo as quickly as they could, because Democrat Kennedy set forth the goal of going to the Moon. They even changed the name of the space center back to "Canaveral". When was he ever President? And the (ahem) less educated examples of the breed like to pretend they never went to the Moon at all. In justice, I admit that uneducated Democrats fall for this too. Hang out on YouTube, there's a whole cottage industry related to altering, forging, and misinterpreting NASA footage. You couldn't get one of them to go to clavius.org at gunpoint-- anything they can't understand must be a "Shill site". Kinda like 9/11 Truthduckers.

So if the Democrat party had done this, it would be no more than simple justice. But in truth, these third-of-a-century old 8-bit kludges have simply got to be retired. Let's face it, when foam can get through your hull, it's time for a new spaceship!

The article was not all that long, why did you "cherry pick" when you could have posted the entire article?

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NASA chief Charlie Bolden

NASA chief Charlie Bolden

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.

“In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.

Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping them conduct science missions. He mentioned new opportunities with Indonesia, including an educational program that examines global climate change.

“We really like Indonesia because the State Department, the Department of Education [and] other agencies in the U.S. are reaching out to Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world. We would love to establish partners there,” Bolden said.

As a presidential candidate, Obama espoused a space program that invited more participation from the international community and Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver said recently that the next time NASA lands on the moon it would be part of an international exploration effort.

Did not work very well at Ft Hood, Ark Recruiter Office, Maryland Military Base....

Barry 0 has a problem with "enemy identification"

Seems he thinks AZ is a bigger threat than actual Murderers.

Actually, the Shuttle program was targeted for shutting down by the Bush administration mainly due to the aging fleet and our nation's desire to explore deeper in space.

Obama has increased the deeper space exploration program.

But let's don't get facts in the way.

Yes, another move by Darth Vader. Hello yes, I'm serious.

Mostly to kill American Exceptionalism. The Muslim thing is like funny zinger Obama wanted to add in there.

You stupid Americans don't realize the President of the USA truly hates our country.

Orlando = Limbaughville.

They're Disney-toons down there.