Sunday, March 20, 2011

Russians, Now In the Driver's Seat In Space, Stick It To NASA For Price of Transportation For U.S. Astronauts


If you ever were looking for the defining portrait of what Barack Hussein Obama has done to the prestige and standing of the United States of America in just two short years, then look into space. I'll paint this portrait for you, painful as it is for most red-blooded Americans to view.

You see, come this summer, American astronauts will literally have no way to get into space. That fancy schmancy space station that orbits the Earth...well, American astronauts won't have a way to get to it come the end of this summer. Barack Hussein Obama has seen to it that America no longer has any space shuttles or rocket ships or whatever the next generation would have been. So, come the end of the summer, American astronauts will have to take a hired taxi into space and those "taxis" are Russian spaceships and the deal has just been announced regarding how much the Americans will have to PAY to hitch those rides. And the Russians are sticking it to us. Big time.

From the article at The Telegraph:


With the US shuttle programme due to formally end this summer, Nasa has had little choice but to agree to a £470.6 million two-year deal with Russia to deliver twelve astronauts to the ISS from 2014-2016.

The deal, which includes training, a return ticket and a rescue service if needed, means that Nasa is paying almost £40 million per astronaut for what the Russian media have dubbed the most expensive taxi ride in history.

Nasa is paying just over £30 million per astronaut now so the new deal represents a price hike of almost twenty five per cent and is the fourth price increase in just five years.

Okay, back to what Obama has done to all of us. Think about the portrait I've drawn...we have a country like Russia, one that is as close to collapse as any in the world...a country with a population declining and Muslims taking over their military and yet these are the new pioneers of space. Barack Hussein Obama didn't just let this happen...hell no...he designed this to happen.

You see, Barack Hussein Obama simply hates American exceptionalism. He's never been a winner, he's always been a loser. Throughout his life, Barry Soetoro has lost and felt that sting of defeat - he's simply never been successful and he blames it on America. So, in his new position of authority, Obama has set out to make his "bully" pay for what it did to him. We've not only seen this in Obama's attack on the space program but in his entire foreign policy and we saw it just this week. You think it was just a coincidence that France took the reins of the Libyan offensive? Hell no. Barack Hussein Obama wants you and me to become comfortable with the once most powerful America sitting on the sidelines. You see, the once young Barry Soetoro sat on the bench during basketball games, because he wasn't good enough to start...and he sat on that bench and he stewed and he smoldered and he vowed one day to get back at "all of them."



Russia takes advantage of end of space shuttle programme


With the US shuttle programme due to formally end this summer, Nasa has had little choice but to agree to a £470.6 million two-year deal with Russia to deliver twelve astronauts to the ISS from 2014-2016.

The deal, which includes training, a return ticket and a rescue service if needed, means that Nasa is paying almost £40 million per astronaut for what the Russian media have dubbed the most expensive taxi ride in history.

Nasa is paying just over £30 million per astronaut now so the new deal represents a price hike of almost twenty five per cent and is the fourth price increase in just five years.

Charlie Bolden, the Nasa chief, said it would buy America breathing space to develop its own spacecraft to transport US astronauts to the ISS.

He said plans were in place "to ensure that American astronauts and the cargo they need are transported by American companies rather than continuing to outsource this work to foreign governments."


In future, private US companies will design and build spacecraft to get astronauts to the ISS, while NASA will focus on the development of more ambitious projects.

"This new approach in getting our crews and cargo into orbit will create good jobs and expand opportunities for our American economy," Mr Bolden said. "If we are to win the future and out build our competitors, it is essential that we make this program a success."

Russia's own space programme, a shadow of its Soviet predecessor, needs all the money it can get as it prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's 1961 space flight next month.

Sergey Ivanov, Russia's powerful deputy prime minister, last month accused the Russian space agency of committing "childish" errors after a string of failed satellite launches. It had also failed to build enough spacecraft, he added.

Despite the high price tag, Russian experts believe the Kremlin could have got even more money from Nasa.

"We could have got more," said Andrei Ionin, a member of Russia's space academy. "But in the current situation, it is better not to spoil relations."

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