The Pink Flamingo :: The Space Age Is A Half Century Old!

Right now I am experiencing a moment of wonderment. Apparently something is going on and all of a sudden the Dems in the Senate have figured out that we are in the middle of a New Space Race! (Hot Damn!) I've been waiting for this moment for 25 years. Now the powers that be are very aware that we aren't the only space power left in the world. I just hope no one opened their big mouths and told the Dems that one of the most important reasons to dominate space and to get ourselves into those valuable L-5 points is for security. Whoever controls space is going to control the future of Earth. The military implications are very serious and need to be seriously considered.

NO BUCKS NO BUCK ROGERS!
(OR HOW JIMMY CARTER NEARLY KILLED THE SPACE PROGRAM)

Well, he did. I just wanted to get a swipe at Jimmy Carter. I’ve had it in for him since deported a Palestinian friend of mine (a Christian) who was executed. We begged, petitioned, etc. to keep him here, where he was engaged to a wealthy co-ed and attending the Southern Baptist Seminary. He wanted to be an evangelist. He had this remarkable conversion story during the 7 Days War. He was born in one of the Palestinian refugee camps in Bethlehem. His mother was a devout Christian who never gave up on him, even when he joined the PLO. During the 7 Day’s War he was stranded in the Sinai, dying of thirst. Disparate, he prayed to his mother’s Savior. “Jesus, if you let me live I will move to the United States, become a Christian, study in the seminary, become a minister, then return to Palestine as a missionary.” Immediately after praying this prayer, he was rescued by an Israeli patrol and put in prison. When he was taken to prison and asked his religion he proudly said, “I am a Christian, having accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” He then asked to speak to a Christian minister and asked for a Bible. The missionary who showed up was the brother of someone who went to our church. Six months later he was in the US going to college. He became a pawn in the Camp David Accords, was returned to Israel and executed.

I digress.

There is a line in the movie The Right Stuff, “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.”

I was a lobbyist during the years following the Carter Administration when there was a real possibility that NASA would be completely shut down by the Democratically controlled House and Senate. William Proxmire of Wisconsin was THE ENEMY. While the newly elected Ronald Reagan was vitally interested in the space program, he was fighting an up-hill battle. Sometimes I think the only thing that held Proxmire in check was SC Senator Fritz Hollings, who chaired that specific sub-committee. (Hollings is one of the few Dems I’ve ever voted for – because he was such a staunch supporter of NASA).

NASA was constantly on the chopping block because the Dems wanted the money for hand-outs. I think it was in 1982 when a recently elected and very junior Congressman from Marietta, GA co-founded the Congressional Space Caucus. As one of the most junior Congressmen in the GOP minority in the House, he had literally THE WORST office space in all of the House of Representatives. The Congressional Space Caucus started with a few members of Congress, most of them Republican and included the late Joe Skeen (I am now a friend of his daughter), and Curt Weldon. Joe Skeen was the power behind the throne, but the new guy from Marietta did all the work. He even hired a colleague of mine who worked between his office and the White House Science Office. A year later, and newly re-elected, he showed up for the annual Space Development Conference when it was in Houston. When a few of us became irate because not one woman was on the program, he encouraged another woman and moi to form The Woman’s Space Network. Before heading back for DC, he even sat in on our organizational meeting in the lobby of the Astroworld Hotel. We weren’t even important enough to be allowed even a table. Most of us were sitting on the floor, including Congressman Newt Gingrich.

Things were a little better when Jack Schmitt was elected to the Senate. He and Newt (as we called him then) ran point for all of us, constantly calling us (personal calls) to let us know when and where our lobby efforts were needed.

And now you know how Newt Gingrich nearly single-handedly saved America’s space program!

Having survived those lean years, the news that the Senate was handing NASA a cool billion above what has been requested is like a dream come true. I’m accustomed to battling for the billion cut off the billion they disparately needed

50 YEARS IN SPACE!
NASA celebrated by getting more money. Remember – “No bucks, no Buck Rogers!”
Bring it on. I’ve been hoping and praying for a NEW SPACE RACE for 25 years!

“…The increase in space funding came on the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's surprise launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite, marking the start of the space age and a race with the United States on developing technology to sustain manned missions in outer space.

The legislation would give NASA about $18.5 billion for the year, including $2.2 billion for space station operations.
Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, which houses NASA's mission control operations, said years of insufficient funding for NASA created the possibility of "another Sputnik moment" for the United States. She warned that U.S. leadership in space eventually could be eclipsed by "the Chinese or to the Indian nation or to Russia."
Sen. Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat who in 1986 orbited Earth 96 times while aboard the Columbia space shuttle that broke apart in flight 17 years later, called for reinvigorating U.S. space exploration.

"China is now graduating five times the number of engineers as the United States. I want to return to that era when we can get people excited about science and technology," Nelson said. The disintegration of Columbia above Texas during its descent from space in 2003 put financial strains on NASA as it tried to investigate the cause of the accident and fix engineering problems.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who sought the additional $1 billion for the space shuttle program, said it would help "cover the cost of repairing and upgrading the space shuttle fleet." She added that following the 1986 explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, Congress provided nearly $3 billion to correct problems and get the shuttles flying again. Mikulski also said the money would help NASA fill a funding gap it faces between 2010, when the shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired, and 2015, when a new space transport vehicle is supposed to be delivered.
The new vehicle would help prepare for planned U.S. missions to the moon and Mars.”

Take the Space History Quiz.
Astronauts remember.

“…NASA is once more trying to reach out to the moon by retiring its three remaining space shuttles in 2010 and reviving the capsule-based spacecraft concept from its Apollo era to ferry astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2020.
"We had the potential, when we got back from the moon in the Apollo days, to start building the technology…to get on with it and go to Mars," Apollo 12 lunar module pilot Alan Bean told SPACE.com. "I thought in my lifetime I might see people on Mars; certainly I would see them training and getting ready to go." But, explained Bean, cultures and countries rarely live up to their potential due to the shifting nature of interest, funds and priorities between generations. "I'm not discouraged by it," Bean said, but stressed that NASA will likely need more definite funding if it is to succeed in returning astronauts to the moon by 2020, let alone reaching out beyond lunar exploration….”