Why Keeping NASA Alive is Important For Our Economy and National Psyche

Today, at 11:29 am EST, an important and magnificent era in American history came to an end. At that precise moment in time, the space shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, a launch that marked the last flight of the United States space shuttle program. After 30 years of service, 135 flights, and numerous moments of triumph and sorrow, all four of NASA's revered spacecrafts will now be retired and sent to various museums across the country in the coming months. For space enthusiasts like myself, it is certainly a bittersweet day.

However, I can't help but sense feelings of anger, resentment, and desperation creeping through my mind and soul as well. This is because I believe that our government is preparing to either make NASA a shell of its former self, or dispose of it altogether. At any rate, in the eyes of the soulless bureaucrats the value, both monetary and practical, of space exploration has diminished considerably. That unproclaimed but painfully visible outlook is quite obvious when you realize that there is no replacement craft for the space shuttle. This means that the only way American astronauts will be able to get to the International Space Station is by hitching a ride with the Russians on their Soyuz spacecraft, a practice that may be implemented for at least five years. These rides won't be free, either. According a Christian Science Monitor article from last June, we will have to pay Russia $55.8 million for every American astronaut that rides on their spacecrafts. 42 years ago, we put a man on the Moon and declared victory against the Russians in the space race. Now, we're paying the Russians just to put our people into the International Space Station. The irony and asininity of our current disposition would've been unfathomable to previous generations.

Manned space travel is not the only NASA project in Washington's cross hairs either. Congress is currently debating whether or not to axe the James Webb Space Telescope project from our national budget. The telescope, which is meant to be the replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, has already cost $6.5 billion, and an additional $1.5 billion has been requested for this year. It is, however, an impressive machine. The James Webb Space Telescope's technology would be far more advanced than the technology currently used in the Hubble Space Telescope. For example, the James Webb would be able to see much farther into the universe than Hubble currently can. It has the potential to detect objects that are 100x fainter than the faintest objects Hubble can detect. The James Webb would also orbit close to 950,000 miles out into space, whereas the Hubble simply orbits around the Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope could truly revolutionize our understanding of the universe. However, once all is said and done, Congress is expected to end the project, and that is really a shame.

I understand that times are tough, and that "anything is on the table" when it comes to making deep cuts in our nation's budget. However, I believe there are certain areas that should be off limits, and NASA is one of those areas. By targeting NASA, the government could be putting thousands of jobs in jeopardy. Take, for example, the space shuttle program. By ending it without a replacement program waiting in the wings, up to 23,000 jobs could disappear. According to the Brevard Workforce, that would include 9,000 NASA jobs and 14,000 non-NASA jobs that rely on the space program to survive (ex. hotels, restaurants, stores,) That's especially bad when you consider the fact that unemployment still high (9.2%) and the job market not growing at all (an abysmal 18,000 jobs were created last month). And the last time I checked, they're weren't 9,000 openings for "rocket scientists". So a lot of this country's greatest minds will be sitting on their couch for a long, painful period of time. That is simply disgraceful, but it may very well become a reality in the near future.

I also don't understand why NASA has become such a primary target for cuts when it doesn't even make up a major portion of our budget. Let's take a look at the numbers.According to CBS News, NASA's annual budget is $18 billion. The breakdown of that $18 billion goes something like this:

$4.5 billion on "science"
$3.7 billion on "exploration"
$3 billion on "cross agency support
$6.1 billion on "space operations"

For a nation that claims to be a superpower, I find it odd that making cuts to "science" and "exploration" would be any type of priority, but that's the position we find ourselves in now. Apparently, we don't have the money to build stuff, but we sure have the money to knock shit down. If you add up the 2011 budgets for our three wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya) the total amount of money spent on them this year comes out to $171 billion. That's nine times the yearly budget given to NASA. I'm not even going to get into the nearly $700 billion given to the "banksters" through TARP, or the $930 million dollars we waste printing Congressional records that are readily available online. Our priorities as a nation are OUT.OF.ORDER. While we're helping a bunch of hate-filled tribalists build up their countries, scientists and engineers in our own country are now struggling to find a new job. Sickening.

Our leaders in Washington need to step back, take a deep breath and realize what they are doing. The destruction of our nation's proud and innovative spirit is reaching the point of insanity. 50 years ago, children were taught to dream big and that they could "be whatever they wanted to be". Nowadays, most parents simply tell their kids to "get a job", and that they have to be "realistic" about their aspirations. American educators, who once worked to produce the most educated and efficient society on the face of the Earth, are now instructing students to learn how read and speak Chinese, as if to say "prepare to be a second rate slave". Teaching our children to surrender their dreams because of our mistakes is hypocritical and shameless.

American investment in exploration can, and should, be a priority. Yes, the private sector will play a crucial role in future of manned spacecrafts, and will probably come up with their own innovations. But that does not mean we should throw a sacred and important institution like NASA in the proverbial trash can. JFK once said "We choose to go to the moon... not because [it is] easy, but because [it is] hard". That is a message we should take to heart today. It might be hard to keep NASA alive, but it is an endeavor that is well worth the effort.  At a time when our nation is in crisis, we need something to turn to.

That "thing", my friends, is the night sky.