White House Confusion Over How NASA Actually Functions
FYI @NASAInSight was approved by @NASA in 2012, built in 2014-2015 and almost flew to Mars in 2016 but was delayed until 2018 due to problems with the French-built seismometer – all before @RealDonaldTrump became president @NASA did not need to be "reawakened". Just sayin' https://t.co/yotSC2P5pT
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) November 26, 2018
That sounds like par for the course and no sign of confusion. President Trump has a habit of taking credit for things, whenever it will sound good and regardless of who actually deserves the credit. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t know who deserves the credit; it just means he doesn’t think that is relevant or that mentioning it isn’t useful to him.
As a viewer from a far it doesn’t seem to matter what trump says he gets it wrong or gets it right ! Some folks seem only care that he said it so then he must be wrong. Yes he does like to take credit for everything !!
That would be because for the most part he gets things wrong. In a recent WSJ interview he could not discern tariffs from interest rates; nor did he understand that tariffs are essentially a regressive tax.
He does insist that he’s a “really smart person, ok?”
There is absolutely no intellectual curiosity about this president. He lives in an enhanced version of Steve Jobs’ famous “reality distortion field”. Previous presidents have all displayed a desire to learn about the government of which they were put in charge. But not trump, he lives inside of a bubble of ignorance. He has no desire to pop this bubble, and on purpose he has no advisors who are willing to pop the bubble either. For example, trump recently expressed a desire to create a government-run “Worldwide Network” compete with CNN, which he considers biased against him. What he did not realize is that the U.S. government already runs several such networks, the most prominent being the Voice of America. He has advisors who know this, but are not willing to inform him of things like this, because they do not want to get yelled at and/or fired. As a result, trump displays as much ignorance about the government position he inhabits as he did when he first gained the position 2 years ago.
and the last President put NASA last in his inauguration parade. At least the current one talks about NASA.
And the last president featured a bunch of marching astronauts and a full scale crewed Mars rover. The last spot in the inaugural parade is considered prime billing. But you have another agenda.
I’m not always a Trump fan but to act like Obama was a friend of NASA is revisionist history. Trump is being Trumpian. It’s to be expected. (If not wanted). Obama cancelled shuttle, cancelled Orion, and made us reliant on Russians for access to space. The merits and failures of these programs can be discussed but don’t start acting like Obama was Kennedy reborn.
No, Bush cancelled the shuttle. It was in his January 2004 speech. Fact.
Bush started winding down shuttle after the Colombia disaster. Fact. Bush started the Orion program to replace shuttle. Fact. Bush (and congress) kept extending shuttle. Fact. Obama pulled the trigger on actually ending shuttle. Fact. Not sure why we have to keep saying “fact” after every sentence. Strikes me as an immature way to have a conversation.
Fact: President Bush at NASA HQ 14 January 2004: “After the Station is complete, the Space Shuttle would be retired, after nearly 30 years of duty.” https://www.nasa.gov/missio…
I notice that the only point you refute. Bush may have laid the groundwork but as I said Obama pulled the trigger. He was perfectly capable of reversing that policy as he reversed many Bush policies.
After Colombia its not exactly surprising Bush wanted to look for alternatives. Declaring an end to shuttle was a way to ensure that. Obama ended shuttle and left us with no alternatives.
Bush cancelled the Space Shuttle. It is in his speech. I was sitting 30 feet away from him when he said it. Everyone in the room knew exactly what it meant. In fact. I wrote a book about this. Let me repeat: Bush cancelled the Space Shuttle. Got that “SpaceCop2814” – or whatever your name is?
SpaceCop2814, I’m not sure where you work, but around here at JSC, it’s widely accepted that Bush cancelled the Shuttle Program. Once the program starts to wind down and the apparatus that kept them going started to be dismantled, Obama couldn’t do anything to revive it, even if he wanted to. Obama cancelled Constellation. Both events lead us to rely on the Russians for as long as we did, but truth be told, relying on Russia was always the plan, just not for this long.
We relied on Russia from the very beginning of ISS for many things. NASA didn’t want to rely on Russia for emergency crew return, so NASA had a Crew Return Vehicle program to end the reliance on Soyuz. But, the CRV ended in 2002 (early in the Bush Administration) due to rising costs elsewhere in the ISS program.
There is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to who canceled what when. I’ll be happy to see both commercial crew vehicles flying. With as sketchy as the Russian space program is becoming, no one on ISS should have to rely on them for sole crew access to ISS.
2814.. you are mixing up the gap with what actually happened. Shuttle was being wound down well before any president that followed Bush. Tank production and other things could not just be started again no matter who was president. Giving more funding may have helped with Aries I to fly sooner, but we’ll never know at this point.
Don’t just make stuff up though. Shuttle was dead when Bush won reelection and solidified VSE. That was actually a good thing BTW, but replacing it has been a political fiasco.
BS… he presented a budget PROPOSAL .. that is non binding to congress. . what EXACTLY about the statement do you not understand?
Congress could have funded it against his wishes and forced him to veto the spending bill .. Congress didn’t do that a bipartisan congress REFUSED to fund the space states pork wagon..
do you understand? Shelby could NOT GET THE VOTES to fund the shuttle..
You really haven’t watched the Vision for Space Exploration speech by Bush. The Shuttle was supposed to be retired ASAP.
Obama cancelled Constellation and Orion was part of that.
If Bush would have fully funded Constellation, there would have been much more progress made before Obama came to office. Plenty of bad policy on both sides.
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” — my Mom.
BULLSHIT .. president’s budget is a proposal and is NON BINDING to congress.. they can vote for anything they want .. fund anything they want .. they could have funding CON stellation .. they REFUSED .. congress REFUSED to fund it ..
sheesh
The CAIB recommended that Shuttle could continue to fly until a repacement system was operational. They recommended Shuttle be replaced by a new system designed solely for access to LEO because, as they presciently pointed out, the funds were not available to safely accomplish a more ambitious goal. Their assumption was that the Suttle replacement would be what was then called the Orbital Space Plane, similar in many respects to today’s Commercial Crew. Although at one point Orion/Ares I was proposed for crew access to ISS, it was too expensive for that mission.
FACT the president sends a NON BINDING budget PROPOSAL to congress..
the republicans said EVERY budget of Obama’s was “dead on arrival”
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Obama cancelled Constellation and Orion was part of that.
If Bush would have fully funded Constellation, there would have been much more progress made before Obama came to office.
BULLSHIT .. President’s budget is a freaking PROPOSAL .. it is NON BINDING
mitch mcconnell would say the same thing as soon as Obama presented the budget .. “dead on arrival”
WOW .. President Bush in 2004 announced The Vision for Space Exploration and that called for the space shuttle to be retired in 2010 .. President Obama fought and got extra flight and extended it to 2011 ..
The President sends a budget PROPOSAL to congress.. it is a NON BINDING budget.. you DO actually understand that a president has to actually VETO a spending bill to cancel a program right? And the veto can be overridden?
Do you know why President Obama did not have to veto the spending bill for the shuttle?
Because a BI PARTISAN CONGRESS refused to vote for funding the space shuttle.. THAT is the spending bill congress sent to the president’s desk .. Not the president;s budget proposal.. but the spending ACT voted on by congress.
funny Obama just didn’t put a ZERO and end ALL funding for things he didn’t like ..
man …. read a book ..
My agenda is to promote NASA. That’s the first time ever that about the parade order, and I can’t seem to find anything to back that up?
After living in DC for 30 years rest assured being the last in line garners additional attention especially since the lights are on at that point.
got a “fact” link for that? 😉 I can’t find anything on that. https://www.google.com/sear…
Honestly don’t care what you think. 30+ years of living in DC is my reference.
President Trump has never cared about the truth in his life. But he tells his supporters what they want to hear (Obama wasn’t born in the US, climate change isn’t real, tax cuts will create jobs, and etc). Facts simply don’t matter for him or his supporters.
Representing wishes as reality is one thing. Not knowing the difference is quite another.
Just wait for next year when he takes all of the credit for astronauts launching from US soil again.
Like Obama took credit for Dragon cargo missions? http://spaceref.com/news/vi…
Like Bush took the blame for cancelling Shuttle?
Yep. If it’s good, he takes credit for it. If it’s bad, it’s somebody else’s fault or fake news. Some people accept what he says for some reason.
The ISS has been in orbit since 1998 and manned since 2000. We have multiple spacecraft on and around Mars. We have multiple Earth observing spacecraft on orbit. Hubble. Chandra. And let’s not even talk about aeronautics work.
Such ignorance…smh…
I don’t know what the fess is about, this is normal presidential politics and goes back decades to the start of the space program. The Mercury Program started under the Eisenhower Administration but President Kennedy, after running on the missile gap as an issue, used it to show how the U.S. was catching up under his Administration. And then we have President Reagan and the first flight of the Columbia Shuttle. So this is just politics as usual.
and I’m sure you didn’t forget that in fact there was NO missile gap…reminds me just a little about the current president claiming there’s an immigration problem, or that there’s massive voter fraud.
Yep, 3 million ppl voted illegally. Otherwise Trump would have won the popular vote also. And Obama wasn’t born in the U.S…. wait I think that might be the only one he actually walked back, after 10 years or something.
I can’t wait until the commercial crews start flying and trump takes credit for that ..