Sarah Palin the Magazine Published

Sarah Palin's presence in the media is almost ubiquitous. Former Alaska Gov. Palin has a bestselling memoir, 'Going Rogue,' out. Sarah Palin is also a Fox News commentator. Palin's Facebook page is widely quoted in the media.

The Times of London inveighs against the cancellation of the return to the Moon program.

Pluses and minuses for Johnson Space Center in Obama budget proposal for NASA

With tonight's premier of the last season of Lost, the New York Times provides a timeline of what has gone on before.

Now that we're not going back to the Moon, some cool technologies that will never fly in space.

Alan Boyle has a story about the new Obama space policy that is a generally favorable spin on it. But there are a couple of things that jump out.

If I had a nickel for every time the NASA briefers used the phrase "game-changing" and "innovative" ... well, I certainly could have bought another latte today. That might have made up for the fact that the space agency's top officials couldn't give a precise timetable or itinerary for future voyages beyond low Earth orbit. "We don't want to set an arbitrary deadline, as has been done," said Lori Garver, NASA's deputy administrator.

Of course they don't. By dot having a deadline, NASA doesn't actually have to do anything. That did not stop Charles Bolden from a vision of what the distant future might be like.

"Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year; people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of 'firsts'; and imagine all this being done collaboratively with nations around the world," he said. "That is what the president's plan for NASA will enable, once we develop the new capabilities to make it a reality."

That sounds very nice. But when? The nagging concern is that the nation's space effort will forever be engaged in developing all of those new capabilities and not actually get around to putting them to use.

That did not stop some of the private players from adding in their promise, with arbitrary deadlines.

"I think I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in 2020 there will probably be very serious plans to go to Mars, with people," SpaceX's Musk said.

Bigelow climbed out on the same limb: "We as a company have lunar ambitions. ... and we also have Mars ambitions as well." Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, meanwhile, predicted that private space explorers would be circumnavigating the moon by 2020.

A lot of brave talk, as Alan Boyle admits, though Musk's statement is uncharacteristically silly. There have been "very serious plans to go to Mars, with people" for decades. But the gap between "plans" and the actual voyage is very wide indeed. Under the Obama plan, it looks like it will remain so.

Clark Lindsey is spinning. There is no manned program replacing Constellation.

Space.Com has another unscientific poll about Obama canceling the Return to the Moon. So far it's two to one against.

Richard Shelby Unhappy with Obama's Space Plan

Senator Richard Shelby is not happy with the proposed change in direction in the nation's space program as proposed by President Barack Obama. This will be a serious problem as Senator Shelby is an appropriator and a powerful one at that.

Charles Krauthammer's Heritage Lecture in the Year of Our Lord (Obama) 2.

Also this:

A perfect example of the difference between Kennedy liberalism — John Kennedy — and Obama. Kennedy was expansive, optimistic, adventuresome; Obama is constrained, inward-looking.


What it means is instead of having Americans walking on the moon or other outer worlds, we're going to have NASA turning its cameras in, gazing on our navel, and we will be adjusting our thermostats.


I think it's going to be really something we regret. We're going to have no way to get into space. We're going to rely on the Chinese, the Indians, and the Russians.

Obama's space policy is liberal? And the bad kind of liberalism at that? So another real conservative finds no conservatism there.

Jeff Fousts asks The Real Question about who supports and who does not support Obama's new space direction.
Scott Horowitz has a history of Ares evolution. Taylor Dinerman asks what will happen If Constellation Dies.

For Republicans and even for some Democrats, canceling the Moon program is yet another slap in the face to the idea of American exceptionalism. When asked about it last April, President Obama subtly dismissed the idea, saying, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” Yet the idea that America is a special, perhaps extraordinary nation is at the core of our national identity. Last year this country celebrated the anniversary of the Apollo landing as a very specifically American triumph.

And there is the international component that his hitherto been ignored.

--this decision is already being played overseas as an American humiliation: a sign of decline and of a lack of will, a self-inflicted defeat. The opposition will not hesitate to use this to feed the narrative of the President and his party as being weak. It will be combined with the cancellation of the European missile defense installation, the cuts to the various defense programs, and the apologies and the bows. This is a fight the Republicans are going to be eager to engage in and that the Democrats will try to avoid.

Obama Proposes Half a Space Program

As part of the FY2011 budget proposal, the Obama administration revealed a blueprint for NASA and the United States space program. There is a lot of lofty language in the OMB fact sheet about a "bold new approach" to space exploration.

How the Space Shuttle Columbia Died

My experience of the space shuttle Columbia disaster took place in my den on an otherwise lazy Saturday afternoon. The TV was tuned onto the news, which was going to broadcast the landing of the shuttle mission STS 107.

Anti-Missile Systems Deployed to Middle East Against Iranian Threats

Hot Air is quoting an Iranian source that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making a threat of "a harsh blow to the 'global arrogance'" on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, February 11.

Brian Williams had an interesting comment about President Obama's coming assault on space exploration.

During the State of the Union, I turned to David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell and blurted out the obvious: I could never be president. The specific reason I gave was that I'd bankrupt the nation by re-starting an all-out push into space – back to the moon, to Mars and beyond.

I mention this (and we will tonight on the broadcast) because of the report out today (a preview of more on Monday) saying the American "manned space flight era" is about to come to an end, for the foreseeable future. For all of us romantics of a certain age, there has always been a space program. Despite the setbacks and the loss of life, we've still pushed onward. We kept going. Much of the technology in my Chevy SUV is thanks to the space program. That feeling you get at the end of “The Right Stuff”?

When you look at the old pictures of the Mercury Seven in their crew cuts and flat-tops -- and realize the courage it took to fly in the X-1, the X-15, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the Shuttle? That feeling, it helped make us great in the post-war era. It gave young boys of the era heroes to look up to. This is a new era, and choices must be made – but what about us old romantics? Anybody out there?

Far better than bankrupting the nation the way President Obama is doing.

However, I would respond than rather than "bankrupt the nation" exploring space, we would and could enrich the nation beyond the dreams of avarice.

Jeffrey Anderson has some harsh things to say about Obama abandoning the Moon, this time in the Weekly Standard.

Last night the moon was not only full, but it was about as close to the Earth as it will be all year. Looking up at its magnificence in the night sky, one cannot help but feel a sense of loss in knowing that President Obama does not want us to go back there.

Word has leaked out that Obama's budget will call for scrapping plans to go back to the moon or on to Mars. As I have written elsewhere, this shows President Obama's horizons aren't very high.

Charles Krauthammer has been excellent on this point, in these pages and elsewhere. Thankfully, those with hearts more bold and adventurous have shepherded our space program in the past. But, unfortunately, President Obama's world-view appears to be rather earth-bound.

Gee, I guess that real conservatives are not buying into Obama's "conservative" space policy.

Obama - Health Care Reform Has 'stray Cats and Dogs'

Tom Beven at Real Clear Politics has uncovered an amazing admission by President Obama about health care reform legislation. Sarah Palin noticed it as well and unleashed her deadliest Facebook page in cyberspace.

Saturday Night Live Does Scott Brown

Saturday Night Live had a sketch featuring Scott Brown and the Democratic leadership that involved the awesome hunkiness of the former and the somewhat twisted fantasy life of the latter.

President Obama Embraces Nuclear Power

To paraphrase a line often made by Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds, they told me that if I voted for John McCain we would see a massive push for nuclear power—and they were right! It seems that President Obama has embraced nuclear energy.

The Orlando Sentinel, which has published a number of stories critical of the current space exploration effort, is now editorializing against entirely cancelling that effort.