The Stars My Destination
In 2009, President Obama ordered the cancellation of Project Constellation, a program began under President Bush that was to create the next generation of American manned spacecraft & the rockets necessary to carry those spacecraft & their astronaut crews to the Moon by 2020 & to Mars by 2030. The Congress fought to keep bits & pieces of Constellation alive, mostly to prevent the dissolution of N.A.S.A.'s irreplaceable workforce, highly skilled & dedicated individuals who would be forced to seek employment in other fields once the Space Shuttle fleet was retired. Constellation was finally cancelled in 2010.

Or was it? SpaceCamp-link. As I wrote elsewhere:

Two years ago President Obama cancelled Project Constellation, which was comprised of the Orion capsule & shuttle-derived rockets capable of carrying massive loads into orbit & eventually ferrying astronauts back to the Moon & beyond to Mars; the first test flight of either an Ares I or Ares V rocket was to take place in 2015. Two years later, President Obama announced the Space Launch System, which is comprised of the Orion capsule & shuttle-derived rockets capable of carrying massive loads into orbit & eventually ferrying astronauts to an asteroid & beyond to Mars; the first test flight is to take place in 2017. What was the point of the last two years of inactivity? Why did the president lay off an enormous percentage of N.A.S.A.'s highly-skilled workforce over the last two years instead of having them work on Constellation (which is basically the same as the S.L.S. just announced)? What have we gained by restarting the same program we killed two years ago?

What I really meant—& should have more precisely articulated—was, What have we gained by restarting the same program we killed two years ago that we wouldn't have gained from spending the last two years hard at work on realizing that program's goals? Because that is essentially what President Obama & N.A.S.A. Administrator Bolden have done, they left the manned spaceflight division of N.A.S.A. utterly directionless for the last two years, with no spacecraft to work on & no goal to work towards besides winding down the Shuttle program. A ghastly percentage of the astronaut corps have left: The Right Stuff-link. Why would they stay? Between the cancellation of the Orion C.E.V. & the "bold" announcement of the all-new, all-different… Orion M.P.C.V., the president was adamant that the future of American manned spaceflight was in commercial spacecraft, not with N.A.S.A. Honestly, when you voted for then-Senator Obama in '08, was the "change" you voted for as bold as changing the initialism of the Orion's name from Crew Exploration Vehicle to Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle? The Last Starfighter-link.

Make no mistake, I am thrilled by the announcement of the S.L.S. initiative & I hope ardently that it will not become a casualty the federal government's ongoing budgetary woes. But I cannot help but be infuriated by the wasted years between the cynically lauded cancellation of Project Constellation & the self-congratulatory resurrection of Constellation's systems & components under this new guise. What did two years of paralyzed space policy under President Obama accomplish? What was achieved by the delay? What did we gain through Mr. Obama's inaction that we would not have gained through continuing work on Constellation? Since the S.L.S. so closely mirrors Constellation, what was so wrong with Constellation in the first place? That it was President Bush's policy? Did we imperil the very notion of American manned spaceflight simply out of President Obama's spite for his predecessor? I find that hard to believe, but at the same time I'm unable to think of another explanation for the president's contradictory decisions. Before S.L.S., President Obama was simply opposed to American manned spaceflight. But now that Constellation has been resurrected in all but name? Please, someone, offer me an alternative explanation.

Also, the chief difference between Constellation's Ares I rocket & S.L.S.'s Liberty rocket is that the American firm Boeing has been replaced as contractor by the European firm E.A.D.S.: Capricorn One-link. Why is is that President Obama's trade policies are protectionist is every sector except aerospace?

Finally, a pair of articles concerning the Euro-American space partnership: Mission to Mars-link & Explorers-link. Project Constellation had to be cancelled, in part, so that N.A.S.A. would focus on robotic exploration, such as probes & planetary rovers. Since we haven't been working on any new spacecraft, why exactly hasn't ExoMars been appropriately funded? What exactly was your space policy, Mr. President, if it wasn't manned spaceflight & it wasn't robotic probes? I'm so frustrated by that man that I could scream.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of New York of the Day
L.C.D. Soundsystem, "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" courtesy of the YouTube (Mrs. Skeeter, Esq.)

Commentary: I particularly enjoy the lyrical mocking of Mayor Bloomberg thinking of himself as Old New Amsterdam's king. Since long before I first heard "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down," I have habitually referred to that dreadful man as "King Michael I." Mayor for life? If so, then the bamboozled citizens of the five borough deserve what they get, since they keep voting for the nitwit.