Video: South Park Review of Obama's NASA Plan

I am very disappointed to not see Buzz Aldrin in the clip. You would have thought they could have used his WWE promo somehow.

Phase 2 is commercial space flight children!

BUT if the adults don't stop fighting nothing will get
done.

Exactly. Thank you.

And I feel that whoever made that video took a pretty funny scene from South Park and managed to pull the humor right out of it with their cheesy, ham-handed, and completely misguided attempt at political comedy.

"if the adults don't stop fighting nothing will get
done"

...But please to define exactly what it is that will be the nothing which will get done when we stop fighting?

The primary change I'm seeing is in how we pay for the hardware we buy. What I'd like to know is how going from cost plus to fixed price plus angel loans and bailouts will change the selection of hardware for the better (when its built by many of the same hands)?
Also how soon whatever comes next is coming and does it start with a bidding war or do we just hop in and go?

Phase 2 = commercial space flight = ?

The underwear gnomes got it right...

Okay, what is commerical space flight?

Who are the vast customers lining up to ride the rocket to no where?

Seems the U.S. government is the only customer, and good luck selling your rocket to other countries with ITAR in place. Either way the money is coming from the American tax payer.

1. There are no American commercial space companies currently taking people into orbit and we don't know when or if they will be ready or how much its going to really cost the tax payers except for the $6 billion we're already supposed to invest over the next 5 years.

2. There are no vehicles being developed for beyond LEO missions to an asteroid

3. Where are we going to get the hundreds of tonnes of mass shielding for such a multi-month venture to keep astronauts from getting their brains damaged from heavy galactic nuclei?

Marcel F. Williams

Commercial space = ? is a pretty accurate statement. Putting the hopes of an entire space program on a 1960s design that hasn't flown successfully and is pledging that it can meet requirements that haven't been developed yet under a certain cost target that reliable industry leaders have stated doesn't have a worthwhile or even close to profitable buisness case is a pretty giant ? in my book.

And with heavy lift the plan is develop magical tech over a 5 year period that will make space travel more affordable. I'm not saying that some advancement isn't out there but we're staking the leadership of the US on ......... A GIANT QUESTION MARK.

Dead on. LOL

If only Mr. Hankey could set things straight.

"at NASA it's our primary objective" LOL

This video is shittier than that show. Way to climb a mountain, guy

Elon Musk commenting on Falcon 9 launch attempt:

"our numerous enemies....."

Our numerous enemies?...bunker mentality mirroring the White House Gulf oil spill fiasco?

US Human Spaceflight evolution: Redstone....Atlas...Titan2...Saturn IB.....Saturn V...Space Shuttle.....Dragon 9.....poof.

Prediction KSC: "Abandoned in Place" placards......weeds by 2015....

TharsisA330

Sorry, commercial space isn't going to get us anywhere near an asteroid. Exploration gives no guaranteed return on investment, and is ridiculously expensive. Even the Obama plan doesn't assume that private industry's going to get us anywhere beyond LEO. If you're going to come on here and start name-calling, at least have the common courtesy to act like a grown-up and get your facts straight first.

FYI, this is a modified version of a clip from a Season 2 episode of South Park titled "Gnomes". The punchline in the original was a sign showing the following:

Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit

The joke in this modified version, more than likely made by a bitter CxP contractor, is as follows:

Phase 1: Cancel Constellation
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Asteroid!

In case anybody doesn't actually know what "Phase 2" is, here's some suggested reading:

http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/new_space_enterprise/home/workshop_home.html
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/new_space_enterprise/home/index.html

...But please to define exactly what it is that will be the nothing which will get done when we stop fighting?

Get over the Shuttle programme being ended. Bush and Griffin did for the Shuttle years ago. NASA could have made Constellation work (eventually) but Bush and congress never funded the programme and the Griffin architecture didn’t help matters.

So this is where we were at before Obama came on the scene... Shuttle cancelled, Constellation massively behind schedule and unfunded.

We can all dream of our different costly programmes they are NOT going to happen.

So what does an Obama programme give NASA Manned Space Flight: extra money... not enough but a start to fund an initial commercial manned space flight regime and basic building block research that could lead mankind from low earth orbit.

What that can give NASA toward the end of this decade is assured access to the ISS not dependent on Russia and. the research basis to build a flexible path with various options to leave low earth orbit. Would that be any worse than the mess that was inherited from Bush and Griffin?

Could it go wrong, of course! Unless the US space programme can move on from starting new programmes and then cancelling them on a regular basis manned Space is going nowhere (Shuttle II, Venture Star, OSP, Constellation et al). Do I trust private enterprise not to try and rip off NASA and the American tax payer well that’s up to the American people and their Congress. The F-35 programme is a warning.

No, no! Its

Phase 2: Collect gamechanging, inflatable underpants

"Could it go wrong, of course!"

...But that is the very point. Many of the same things can still go wrong long after we've changed our purchasing mechanics.
Programs are subject to mismanagement and your response to a bad boss is to burn the factory down and hope we get it right the next time.
You console yourself with that decision by saying we should work on smaller things in more factories to accommodate all the coming arsonists.

Then we're still left with the question of how this plan gets us to an asteroid faster than just buying some EELV's and going for it with a traditional balls out (set a date and front the cash) program.