Even before President Obama came into office, his space exploration transition team, headed by an inexperienced person by the name of Lori Garver, told NASA that there were going to be deep cuts to that Agency in the coming year and that the shuttle replacement program would be scrapped. Further, Obama's transition team told NASA to explore using old technologies to shuttle us to the Space Station. So, today, we have no shuttles because they were all decommissioned in 2010. We have no replacement program because Obama scrapped it. Instead, we now depend on two private entities, Orbital Sciences and Space-X, and the Russians to get us or any supplies to the International Space Station.
Now, because of the President's use of sanctions placed on Russia over the Ukraine, Russia has announced that we can no longer use them for access to the space station starting in 2020. So, that brings into question the wisdom of being dependent on an on-again-off-again adversary such as Russia for a space shuttle replacement.
Last August, a Space-X launch vehicle was intentionally blown up because of a detected malfunction; setting back that company's program. On top of that, after the recent explosion of the Orbital Sciences' rocket that uses a 40-year old rocket engine purchased from Russia, and then the explosion of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space plane, one has to seriously question Obama's decision to scrap the space shuttle in lieu of small, private, start-up space companies like Orbital Sciences and Space-X. So, right now, we have Russia at odds with us. At the same time, both of the space programs of our only two private contractors are unavailable as each of them sorts out what went wrong with their vehicles. Orbital Science, didn't just lose their rocket, their entire launch pad was lost at the very same time.
This is another example of incompetence by this President and another reason that he has such a low approval rating. From a stimulus that didn't stimulate; to an ObamaCare law that was supposed to lower costs and allow you to keep your insurance and your doctor; to the mishandling of Syria, ISIS, and our pulling out of Iraq; to the missteps on Ebola and the unaccompanied youths from Central America; Obama has proven that he is not up to the job and absolutely cannot pick the right people to appropriately keep him advised.
References:
December 2008: Obama Planning to Scrap Shuttle Replacement, Says NASA: http://www.dailytech.com/Obama+Planning+to+Scrap+Shuttle+Replacement+Says+NASA/article13750.htm
Russia to ban US from using Space Station over Ukraine: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10828964/Russia-to-ban-US-from-using-Space-Station-over-Ukraine-sanctions.html
August 22, 2014: SpaceX rocket explosion caught on video: http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2014/08/22/spacex-test-rocket-explodes-in-texas/14472939/
October 14,2014: 40-Year-Old Russian Engine at Heart of Rocket Investigation: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/14/141029-rocket-explosion-russian-nasa-science/
October 31, 2014: Virgin Galactic Crash: Enough With the Amateurs: http://time.com/3551643/virgin-crash-branson-amateur/
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