I have to admit I am a bit shocked that the typically silent Neil Armstrong is so vocal about President Obama's space policy. A little late to open his mouth, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I am also in a bit of a quandary as to whether he and his like-minded former Apollo comrades are right... or backward-looking:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/neilarmstrongobamasnewspaceplanpoorlyadvised
While I want to applaud Obama for throwing the gauntlet down regarding a greater role for commercial space in LEO and perhaps beyond, the reality of the situation is that.... we have no launch vehicles flying yet... or likely in the very near future! And I don't know about anyone else, but does it bother you that we may be hitching rides to the ISS on a very expensive Soyuz (though, admittedly, it probably is a bargain, relatively speaking.)
The question becomes, philosophically, who's right? Is anyone right? Does anyone care? Should we care?
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NASA should have got out of the trucking business LONG ago. Does Fed Ex build planes. Nope. The commercial launch vehicles eg Falcon are no further away than Aries was , and may do a better / cheaper Jon. The President is right to push NASA towards the edges of the envelope, and leave the trucking business to Commercial companies
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