To The Moon...Twice As Long As It Took Us Before...

This note from Bob Parks at www.BobParks.org :

"THE POISON PILL: NASA UNVEILS PLANS TO VISIT THE MOON IN 2018.2018? In 1961 John Kennedy promised the Moon "before this decadeis out." From a standing start, America was on the moon in sevenyears. Now, after 44 years of "space progress," it's gonna taketwice as long? What are we looking for? NASA says they'll findwater, hydrogen and "valuable commodities." On the Moon? Go on! Maybe someone takes that seriously, but he's not writing thiscolumn. We've got robots on Mars right now. Put a few of themon the moon. They don't break for lunch, or complain about thecold nights, and they live on sunshine. Space exploration with humans is about over."

I've been carping about the US Space Program for years, and Bob should know why it'll take so long to get back into space travel for humans, but Bob is quite liberal, a scientific mensch but a loony leftie too, and can't or won't admit why our voyage to what's out there has come to a grinding halt.

Yes, JFK pronounced it and it was done in 7 years, but NOW it has to be done utterly safe...and without school teachers getting harmed in the process...and since safety and space travel are incongrous this is going to be one helluva tough thing to do. The Nanny-Generation is upon us and losing 1 out of every 4 test pilots is an impossible thing to envision, for the gutless wonders who want to live forever run the joint, and even a good head boink now and again is out of the question.

Are we preparing for this, even now beginning to select the absolute best the country has to offer, the combination of the smartest, the toughest, the best pilots, the one's with the right stuff?

Hell no. The next trip to the moon will HAVE to include people taken from the middle to bottom of the barrel in order to be politically correct, and the hot-shot stud of a 21 year old fighter pilot who is training for it now will be along, but just for the ride not as a matter of course. If the media and the weak-kneed-lefties have their eyes on something it's pretty much doomed to failure or cost-overruns or delay, so think of 2018 as a date to shoot for but certainly not anything written in stone. I could not disagree MORE with Bob's dismissal of manned space travel as a thing of the fading past, but again, he's a whingy lefty and from his perspective taking care of those who don't want to pitch in with society is far more important than breaking our earthly boundaries and shooting for the stars.

We'll get there, but by inches at a time rather than in the giant leaps that were taken before. When men were ready willing and able to shout light the damned candle and be done with it...and not oh'm'gosh LOOK, a tile fell off!