"1972 Called: It Wants Its Heroic Spirit Back." Gene Cernan's Story

"We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."--Ronald Reagan

“We can’t expect to be number one in everything indefinitely.” --Top administration Science Advisor Dr. John P. Holdren to American students

"Obama’s is a stunted vision, and one that deliberately scales back the horizon for Western man, leaving the Chinese and Russians as de facto kings of the cosmos. Though the president believes that he’s smartly tossing a cumbersome program into the bin, along with its cowboy ethos, he forgets that astronauts are more than overpaid automatons of the state — they’re heroes, men whose adventures are an instrumental part of America’s own. The president looks at moondust and sees dirt."--Robert Costa

When I was recently listing some of the many, many, many ways in which Comrade O had abased himself before Putin and Russia, I forget this one:

Robert Costa: “I just have to say, pretty bluntly here, that we’ve been [to the moon] before,” Obama declared in front of an eerily quiet NASA audience. ...When he spoke at the Kennedy Space Center during the run-up to the 2008 election, Obama vowed to protect the jobs of the facility’s workers before an audience that included them; not a single space worker was invited to attend yesterday’s speech."

If it was a Crescent Moon, he'd go there.

Obama BEFORE the election:

“Obama commits to moon mission” By Robert Block, Orlando Sentinel, August, 16 2008

Obama AFTER the election:

“Obama aims to ax moon mission” By Robert Block, Orlando Sentinel, January 27, 2010

FoxNews, May, 2010:

"Earlier this week, the administration said it would rescue a small part of the moon program: its Orion crew capsule. But instead of taking four astronauts to the moon, the not-yet-built Orion will be slimmed down and used as an emergency escape pod on the [Russian] space station."

What a perfect metaphor for Obama's vision: from "To Boldly Go Where No Man has Gone Before !" to "Keep your head down, crawl into the escape pod and nobody will get hurt."

"America--We Lead the World in Escape Pod Technology!"

That would be an escape pod from the Soyuz Space Station--if we can even beg the Russians to sell us the rocket engines to get there in the first place:

How a U.S.-Russian Space Rocket Deal Funds Putin's Cronies: Putin’s space industry is managed by two Russian officials sanctioned over the invasion of Ukraine. So why is the Pentagon buying $2 billion from it?

Way to stand up to those Russkies, Barry. You showed them. ......................

Now, we honor a true American hero, Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon.

Always shoot for the moon

 

"America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus–Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.
Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."



"T.D.C."



Honor

In an era when China builds islands in international waters at will, we cannot cede the Moon to any power which would take similar military advantage. Does anyone believe today's dictatorships would honor treaties in space any more than on earth?

We should honor Capt. Cernan by returning to the Moon, for science, for adventure and for peace.

“Civilization is not an evolution of mankind but the imposition of human good on human evil. It is not a historical inevitability. It is a battle that has to be fought every day, because evil doesn’t recede willingly before the wheels of progress.”--Andy McCarthy

"Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they said in the film Back to the Future, 'Where we're going, we don't need roads.'"--Ronald Reagan

"Always"