Trouble in Space Station Construction

Reminds me of when the Hubble was first deployed back in the spring of '90, and was discovered to have a slight case of spherical aberration. The primary mirror was the most perfectly figured one in all of history, but unfortunately, it was figured perfectly wrong. Reality is that all people are human, and humans make mistakes.

What is much more troubling to me than this slight miss-fit, is the fact that in a few more months, the United States will be dependent upon the the good offices of the Russians to get us to and from the ISS. And things aren't always that cozy between us and them. This could very easily become something that they could use to attempt to twist our government's arm with, for whatever purpose suits them. And I might point out that Russian purposes are not necessarily in the best interests of the United States of America.

The thing I find particularly disturbing is that Mr. Obama has axed NASA's Constellation program, which was to be it's follow-on to the Shuttle program. He claims to want NASA to focus on the Mars mission, but this is disingenuous, as it is impossible to go to Mars if you have no way to get off the planet in the first place.

Be that as it may, the human comedy goes on.

I think that the best method of creating a functioning space industry is to let the free market run it. as it should have been long ago. Nasa has had their kick at the cat. There will be a good space program; better than ever... because industry will get the job done with a lot less red tape and bs. It's really a statement of American Free Enterprise that it has taken this long to get Nasa's grip to loosen, don't you think? If America (and Canada) wants a space program, then Git'er'done. getting government out of the way is a stroke of genius.

Chris