Billions for bailouts, but nothing for NASA???

[Lady's Human]

http://spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/091026program/#

Congress really needs to get their priorities straight.

Manned space flight creates hundreds of productive jobs initially, and thousands after the new tech required for the programs hits the commercial market.

Instead of cutting funding for NASA, they should be going to NASA and asking them what they need, and writing a check. (A touch of hyperbole, but you get my meaning, I hope......................)

How about taking all the money from the earmarks and giving it to NASA instead?

[Cinder & Smoke]

Congress really needs to get their priorities straight.
...
How about taking all the money from the earmarks and giving it to NASA instead?

:(
Congress just needs to be *replaced*!

;)

[Lady's Human]

On a side note, Ares 1's first test launch is delayed by 90 minutes for someone driving a ship into the danger area.....:rolleyes:

[lvpets2002]

:p Well now there is a great idea..
:(
Congress just needs to be *replaced*!

;)

[Lady's Human]

:(
Congress just needs to be *replaced*!

;)

*Bites tongue.....HARD*

[Lady's Human]

And yes, even though I work nights I'm staying up to watch the launch.....got to see if our shiny new toy works!:D

[Cinder & Smoke]

Alll is GO - 'cept they forgot to invite the Weather Guys to the party! :(

Just announced the next *GO* time will be 11:04 AM - 10 minutes from now.

Plenty of Tyme to *pop* a fresh batch of P-corn.
------------------------------------------------

11:00 am Uppie-Date >>>

Countdown to resume @ 11:15 am;
*GO* Tyme now 11:19 am ... Weather still the problem.

Grrrrrrr ... 11:03 = they moved it back >>>
Countdown restart @ 11:10 ...
FLY Time now 11:14 am ...

HURRY with that P-corn!

[Lady's Human]

Pretzels and Astronaut Ice Cream in the bar, Phred!

[Lady's Human]

Scrubbed!:(

[Cinder & Smoke]

It's a **SCRUB** for today! :(

No day/time yet set for the RE-do.

Anyone want some P-corn?

[Cinder & Smoke]

*Bites tongue.....HARD*

:confused:

?? Sumpin I said?

Did I step on a tender toe?
KAT got your tongue?

Don't be bashful -
Speak your mind!

:D

[Lady's Human]

I can't speak my mind about Congress........It's a family site.

But, to steal a verse from a song from the musical 1776....


I do believe you've laid a curse on North America
A curse that we now here rehearse in Philadelphia
A second flood, a simple famine
Plagues of locusts everywhere
Or a cataclysmic earthquake
I'd accept with some despair
But, no, you sent us Congress.
Good God, sir, was that fair?

[Lady's Human]

Next launch attempt tomorrow morning at 8AM

[Lady's Human]

Also from 1776

John Adams:

"It has come to my attention that one useless man is called a disgrace, two are called a Law Firm, and three or more are called a Congress!"


Great musical, especially if you catch the complete musical with "Molasses to Rum to Slaves" left in (It was edited out of some versions)

[RICHARD]

If you all don't start putting 'EST' next to the launch times, I am going to petition to have your astronaut cards pulled.


I always have the momentary loss of time zones and then panic sets in- I start to do the math then figure if I am late or early.


Now, to set the alarm for "earth time" tomorrow morning..5 a.m. PST!:D

[Lady's Human]

I've been ordered not to break the speed limit on my way home from work tomorrow morning..........I get out at 7 AM EST, and the launch is theoretically at 8 AM.

Got to get comfy on the couch with the pretzels and Cocoa.

[RICHARD]

I've been ordered not to break the speed limit on my way home from work tomorrow morning..........I get out at 7 AM EST, and the launch is theoretically at 8 AM.

Got to get comfy on the couch with the pretzels and Cocoa.

Thanks!!......4:50 pst...:cool:

Speaking of pretzels?

I bought an industrial sized bag of Halloween candy that had all kinds of assorted stuff inside.

I had a bag of pretzels sticks too. I took a tootsie roll out-no, not the kitteh kind:D- and flattened it out with my fingers and wrapped it around the pretzel......


I wasn't bad. It wasn't the messy chocolate covered pretzel stick I have had before......

Now to find a way to improved on the concept...

Astronaut pretzel sticks in the shape of rockets??:rolleyes::D

[Cinder & Smoke]

I can't speak my mind about Congress........It's a family site.

" ...But, no, you sent us Congress.
Good God, sir, was that fair?"

Oooooopsie!
:o
:o

Forgive me for tempting you to cross the line ...
Plumb furgot those clowns help sign your pay check!

You show remarkable restraint!
;)

[aTailOf2Kitties]

we're spending millions and billions of dollars investigating other places while people on our own planet are starving to death? Something's wrong here.

[Lady's Human]

Those billions spent on space research generate jobs and new technologies (which generate jobs).

Walk into a hospital.......most of the tech used in treatment is from NASA.

The computer on your desktop? NASA

The internet? DARPA

Agriculture improvements? NASA

Weather satellites? NASA

Yeha, it's a real waste of money.

[kokopup]

I agree with 'Lady's Human' that the monies, spent by NASA, comes back into our economy many times over. Being a former NASA employee I saw first hand the technology that later flowed into main stream America and the World. If you look at the cost of all products, the only things that cost less today than any other time in our history are those things tied to technology. Technology that was developed by NASA or NASA contractors.

[Lady's Human]

The NASA budget for FY 2009 is 17.6 billion dollars.

That means each person in the US is paying 15 cents per day (Using the estimate of 305 million US residents) for a program which has had massive returns on the investment.

I'll take that bargain any day of the week.

[Cinder & Smoke]

If you all don't start putting 'EST' next to the launch times,
I am going to petition to have your astronaut cards pulled.

I always have the momentary loss of time zones and then panic sets in-
I start to do the math then figure if I am late or early.

Now, to set the alarm for "earth time" tomorrow morning..5 a.m. PST!:D

:eek:

The Left Coast is gonna be *pi$$ed* when he tunes in at "Oh:dark:Thirty"
this morning ... the FireWorks won't begin till 11:00 am EDT = 08:00 LCDT
(LCDT = Left Coast Daylight Tyme).

Now, about the TZ notations:

Is your suggested "EST" to stand for "ESTIMATED" or "Eastern STANDARD Tyme" ???
("Etimated" as in wild, hopeful, complete guess)

11:47 Edit:

GOOD GREF, people - let's just DO IT!
Now the Weather Gurl is *waving* her RED Flag for another Weather Hick-Up! :mad:

Darm P-corn is gona get cold - again!
11:50 = TWO Weather NO-goes.

:mad:

[Lady's Human]

I think Richard is still hung over from the scrub yesterday morning.:cool:

[Cinder & Smoke]

time now = 10:57 am

WAG Tyme ("WILD-A$$ Guess") is:

Countdown resume @ T-4:00 is now 11:04 am Eastern
Push da Button at 11:08 am.

[Lady's Human]

Wag time?

Da wagger is sleepin on da couch.

No waggin here?

[Cinder & Smoke]

<**pounds head on screen**>

We'd better order lunch ...

Miz Weather sez NO go till 11:20 am Eastern ...
Countdown will resume from T-4:00 at 11:16 am.

BUT - that's another WAG Tyme.
:rolleyes:

[aTailOf2Kitties]

That means each person in the US is paying 15 cents per day (Using the estimate of 305 million US residents) for a program which has had massive returns on the investment
well I'd rather have my 15 cents go to help one of the thousands of people who lost their jobs in the Recession than to some overpaid nerd who figured out how to spend 68 million dollars on a couple of one-way probes to the moon.

I've been to Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed every second of it. Let's face it, space is mysterious and really interesting. I'm not saying NASA souldn't exist, I'm just saying I think the gov't needs to focus more money on fixing problems right here in the Good Ole U-S-of-A before spending billions of dollars exploring space. Don't suspend all activities, just tone it down a little.

[Lady's Human]

Let's try this one more time....

No (or reduced) NASA.........

No hospital room monitors

No MRI's

No CT scans

No microcomputers (At least highly improbable that they'd be available as consumer items)

A wide variety of high tech ceramics, plastics (Mylar), glass products.

No remote crop monitoring (Ya think people are hungry NOW?)

No weather satellites

No comms satellites

Cell phones? Nope.

cable TV? Nope. (no satellites for comms)

Fly by wire aircraft? nope (commercial aviation would be more expensive. Southwest Airlines $99 fares? Doubtful)

Composites? Nope.

and on, and on...........

and guess what? All those technologies and products EMPLOY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

Better to give them jobs than handouts.

[Cinder & Smoke]

Good GRIEF!

Better pass out the Dinner Menu, too.

NOW they've reset the clocks to resume the countdown at 11:26 am -
with plans to Push da Button at 11:30 am (Eastern) ...

HOWEVER, the Weather Gurl and her Observation Pilot won't "guarantee"
the weather opening will be LONG Enough to accomplish the launch.

UPPIEDATE:

"We're *ALMOST* clear - with a probable 10-minute window" ...
NOW we're thinking of Pushin da Button a minute or two earlier.

Better *wake* da Wagger - she won't wanna miss this!

[Lady's Human]

Those overpaid nerds who crashed two one way probes into the moon? (Nice, BTW, heck of a way to show respect to people who drive the economy......those engineers create the tech you play with at home)

1) They're government employees. They probably aren't overpaid.

2) They were conducting crucial research. If there's water on the moon, it means less mass to carry aloft to go elsewhere in the solar system. If there's water up there, it open up the whole solar system to manned exploration at a much, much cheaper cost.

[Lady's Human]

Resuming the countdown in 3:40....CLEAR TO LAUNCH!!!!!:D:D

[Lady's Human]

Good job guys!

From paper to liftoff in under three years?

:cool:

(Now if we could just raise that budget a touch........)

[Cinder & Smoke]

***NICE RIDE, Gang***

I wanna ride again ... how soon's the next shoot??

[Lady's Human]

Psst , Phred.......diddja seee Atlantis on the pad next door?

She goes uppity on Nov 16th.:D

[Cinder & Smoke]

Psst , Phred.......diddja seee Atlantis on the pad next door?

She goes uppity on Nov 16th. :D

I *wondered* who or what that was!

Shuttle Launches are REALLY hard to live through - hard on the old Ticker-Tocker. :p

[Lady's Human]

I've had mixed feelings about shuttle launches ever since Challenger went boom.

Funny, I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when both Challenger and Columbia had their accidents.

[RICHARD]

I got to see it....I was a feeling a little punk this morning.
I woke up at 2:30 and tried to stay awake..

I fell asleep again and was able to get thru the prelims.:D

LH,

You forgot one little thing....

No NASA?

No astronaut ice cream!:D

(I LOVE the camera on the side of the booster.

Wow, Two miles up seems like 30!

Well, done.


------------------------

I was at home for the Challenger, I called in sick to work and I got a call from a pal who was asking what had happened.

I remember one of the news conferences and watching Jay Greene, one of the NASA honchos, trying to answer questions from the press....I could feel his pain.

Now, I know what "swaying in the wind" means. He was in the middle of a hurricane with no idea where the storm would land him.

For the Columbia landing I flipped on the radio-it was supposed to land at Edwards and I heard the news blurb saying they had lost contact with the craft.

Later, I went to Home Depot to get some stuff for a side job I was doing and will always remember how quiet the store was....spooky.