Incensed at President Obama‘s dismantling of the American Dream in Space, a Texas Senator launched a new bill in Congress today to save the space shuttle!
Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson from the Lone Star state of Texas filed a bill today on the floor of the Senate – a measure that would delay the current Space Shuttle’s planned retirement later this year until a replacement craft is good to go or that its massive payload bay is no longer needed to keep the International Space Station in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth.
Sen. Hutchinson’s 37-page bill also authorizes an additional $1.3 billion in NASA spending above President Obama’s downsized request of $19 billion.
The extra money would keep NASA flying for as many as two additional shuttle launches per year post 2010, as well as fund new spacecraft development.
"This must not be an ‘either or’ proposition where we are forced to choose between continuing to fly the shuttle to service the station and maintain our independence in reaching space, or investing in the next generation of space vehicle. We CAN and MUST do both," Sen. Hutchison said in a statement.
As The ENQUIRER reported last month Obama moved to cancel NASA’s new Constellation and Ares projects killing the next gen-shuttles but also our return to the moon. These cuts would allegedly prompt privatization of the space industry.
"While commercial transportation systems may contribute valuable services, it is in the United States’ national interest to maintain a government operated space transportation system for crew and cargo delivery to low-Earth orbit and beyond," the bill stated.
In effect, Obama’s plan was to dismantle the US space effort effectively putting many people out of work and relegating the US to a third-world power in terms of achievement in space. With shuttle astronauts, crew and technicians seemingly grounded the plan was for US astronauts to travel to the space station as paying passengers aboard outsourced Russian, Chinese and Indian 1970s style Soyuz-era type spacecraft.
The new bill which also calls for the creation of a Flight Recertification Review Committee that would assess what work would be required to keep the aging space shuttle fleet aloft. A five-member team would be appointees of National Academies of Science.
Two companion bills are expected to be filed shortly in an attempt to force the Obama administration to do an about-face on the decision to mothball American dominance in space – and beyond.
