NASA awarded $ 1.6 BILLION for new SHUTTLES

Found this on a news site but not on ATS ???

I think this is good news!

German source only but Google translated the text for you.
www.spiegel.de...


NASA is investing heavily to develop new spacecraft: $ 1.6 billion awarded by the U.S. space agency over the next two years to private companies to promote the development of new manned systems. The goal is to end dependence on the Russians.

No longer fly the space shuttle since the Americans are just relying on the Russians: Their "Soyuz" - and "Progress" transporters are currently the only craft personnel and material to the International Space Station (ISS) can bring. But how unsafe it is just this one connection to have, has only shown in August, as a "Progress" cargo ship crashed shortly after takeoff. The cause was a malfunction of the "Soyuz" launcher - and with the almost identical technique also regularly fly astronauts to the ISS. For the "Soyuz" rocket temporary ban was a start, and an evacuation of the ISS appeared possible.

For NASA that was clearly a wake-up call. It could not tackle that depended the 100 billion dollar ISS, the functioning of a single system, says Phil McAlister, who is responsible for the U.S. space agency Nasa for the commercial space industry. "Every year that we can not start a manned commercial flights, the station is in danger," McAlister said last week at a conference in Florida.
NASA does so now to help deep in the till to the industry in the development of new systems on the jumps. In the next two years to $ 1.6 billion (1.17 billion euros) will be issued for this purpose, as NASA officials said on Monday. In tender designs is of complete systems including launch vehicle, spacecraft and ground station of the question. By the middle of the decade, Americans will once again be able to fly into space itself.

Rapid development

With the money to the investments of private enterprises will be encouraged. Barack Obama has asked for the "Commercial Department initiative," NASA $ 850 million. Whether the Senate will easily make that amount, however, is still open: The responsible Committee last week offered $ 500 million.

The rapid development of its own spacecraft could save the U.S. government's bottom line, however, some expenses. The Russians currently require more than 50 million dollars to bring a man into space - including training and additional services.
So far, NASA promotes four companies: the Boeing company, Space Exploration Technologies, the Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Blue Origin, the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one. The contracts with these companies Nasa should have a total of 269 million dollars. On Monday, NASA announced the collaboration with Boeing by 25.6 million and the Sierra Nevada to increase by 20.6 million dollars. At the same time pumps the space agency additional 46 million dollars in their own commercial space program.

Just last week, NASA had announced plans to build a giant rocket. The "Space Launch System" would surpass with its dimensions, the "Saturn V" rocket, which brought in the "Apollo" program, the first humans to the moon. At the same time, NASA participated in the development of the 90-meter-long "Liberty" rocket, an international project.

And people are starving and homeless in this country !? What the # is around with this damned country !? There is not enough money to feed the sheeple and they can award NASA 1.6 billion !? Hell no, hell no, hell no.....
America has become a #ing disappointment and shame and to think I wanted to stay here,
I'm moving out of this hellhole!

They need more money in the education system too, cut these pointless wars too. Unreal, just unreal.

Money well spent imo. Mankind has benefited greatly from space exploration and will benefit even more. If we spent trillions on NASA like we do with wars we would be on mars by now.

NASA budget makes up just 0,6 % of federal budget, and the amount actually spent on human spaceflight is around half of that. Not to mention that investments in science and technology are probably the best way to spend the tax money, IMHO.

As for the thread topic, private spaceflight has a bright future ahead!

reply to post by buster2010


I agree, there are a hundred other things they would end up wasting that money on so space is probably one of the best wastes we can hope for from the US government.

reply to post by buster2010


Yeah there wouldn't be much left around do benefit from these explorations.
You need people to build a future, a shuttle isin't going to provide us shelters, jobs and food.

Originally posted by Heartisblack
And people are starving and homeless in this country !? What the # is around with this damned country !? There is not enough money to feed the sheeple and they can award NASA 1.6 billion !? Hell no, hell no, hell no.....
America has become a #ing disappointment and shame and to think I wanted to stay here,
I'm moving out of this hellhole!

They need more money in the education system too, cut these pointless wars too. Unreal, just unreal.

edit on 20-9-2011 by Heartisblack because: (no reason given)

Us TAX PAYERS would like to see our money go to useful things that progress mankind. Not just throw all of it away on poor people, k thnx

reply to post by Fitch303


I believe the middle class have become poor people too and they have paid taxes as well.
There's a big picture, have you missed it?

Originally posted by Shurima
reply to post by Fitch303

 

I believe the middle class have become poor people too and they have paid taxes as well.
There's a big picture, have you missed it?

Thank you, we need schools to educate these idiots to send them into space, you don't want a labourer in space that doesn't know what he's doing do you ?

reply to post by Heartisblack


This is why:

1. We can't have nice things.
2.This whole mess won't end sooner than it would and could.

god bless america

Originally posted by Shurima
reply to post by Heartisblack

 

This is why:

1. We can't have nice things.
2.This whole mess won't end sooner than it would and could.

If we weren't fighting all of these damn wars and funding dick, tom and harry, jane and spot's country and let everyone fund themselves. We'd have money. We need space programs, we need school programs, we need a lot of things in this country.

Face it, the ISS is doomed to fly empty for a couple of years and then will be brought down.

There is absolutely no way NASA or private industry can boost a shuttle replacement vehicle and crew into orbit to service the ISS or remove the crew in an emergency anytime in the next few years.
.
The money is being thrown around under that excuse is simply an effort to help the US economy, . It is a modern substitute for the old federal programs during the Great Depression of paying men to dig ditches and then paying them to fill them up, a make-work program, but higher tech this time around.

We have the secret, space-capable craft, triangles, or others, to rescure and/or resupply the ISS if we need, but for the interim, it will be quietly done if necessary.

(I know, people get tired of hearing my repeated refrain about this, but as long as people accept as valid and sacred the words from government/NASA, I'll be bleating away.)

reply to post by Heartisblack


Are you kidding dude? You're upset at a measley $2 billion being spent on space shuttles? We spend that much in like 2 hours on the wars we're keeping up. Seriously dude, how does our country spending money on exploring space make you upset?

Take some time and think about how massive the universe is, all of the things out there that we can discover, all of the planets/moons that we can go to, how is that not a good investment? Screw the moon landing, imagine watching a Mars or Europa landing on a HDTV! What if there was life somewhere in our solar system, and we just haven't discovered it yet? Would one of the most earth shattering discoveries in human history not be worth a few billion dollars?

:shk:

With an approved military spend of roughly 900 billion for 2010 to 2011 most people in the US are happy but when NASA get 1.6 billion people start to bitch about it.
Typical!

reply to post by Wh00pS


Approved?... Everyone happy?... What kind of people are you talking about?
It this a joke or some sarcastic comment?

reply to post by Heartisblack


You're complaining about $1.6 billion? The US federal government spends over a thousand times that amount on social welfare and related entitlements every year.

$761 billion for Social Security
$468 billion for Medicare
$598 billion for unemployment insurance and other forms of social welfare
$79.9 billion for the Dept. of Health and Human Services
$77.4 billion for the Dept. of Education
$49.8 billion for the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development

If that's not enough to get the job done then I hardly think an extra $1.6 billion is going to make much difference.