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Articles of Interest

NASA Moon Missions: Astronauts Won’t Return To Lunar Surface Anytime Soon, Agency Chief Says

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

By: Miriam Kramer
Published: 04/08/2013 03:18 PM EDT on SPACE.com

NASA chief Charles Bolden says the space agency won’t be sending astronauts to land on the moon any time soon, according to press reports.

The U.S. space agency won’t lead the way back to the moon in the foreseeable future in order to maintain its focus on manned missions to an asteroid, and eventually Mars, Bolden said during a joint meeting of the Space Studies Board and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board last Thursday (April 4), according to a SpacePolitics.com report by Jeff Foust.

“NASA will not take the lead on a human lunar mission,” Foust quoted Bolden as saying. “NASA is not going to the moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime. And the reason is, we can only do so many things.”

Instead, he said the focus would remain on human missions to asteroids and to Mars. “We intend to do that, and we think it can be done,” Bolden said. [Most Amazing Moon Missions in History]

Bolden’s comments on new manned moon missions came in response to a suggestion that the scientific community, as a whole, is not enthusiastic about pushing ahead with a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025 — an idea endorsed by President Barack Obama in 2010.

In April 2010, Obama called on NASA to pursue the manned asteroid mission as a precursor to sending astronauts to Mars in the mid-2030s. That new space vision, unveiled just after Obama canceled NASA‘s moon-oriented Constellation program, which sought to send astronauts on new lunar landing missions, in favor of the asteroid and Mars plan.

During the April 4 meeting, Bolden apparently made it clear that NASA does not plan to lead the charge back to the moon’s surface.

“I don’t know how to say it any more plainly,” Bolden said, according to Foust. “NASA does not have a human lunar mission in its portfolio and we are not planning for one.”

With Obama now in his second term, Bolden also warned that if the next presidential administration chooses to make another major course change in NASA‘s human spaceflight program, such a change would mean “we are probably, in our lifetime, in the lifetime of everybody sitting in this room, we are probably never again going to see Americans on the moon, on Mars, near an asteroid, or anywhere. We cannot continue to change the course of human exploration.”

NASA made history on July 20, 1969 when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans ever to walk to on the moon. Five more successful moon landings would follow until 1972, when the series ended with NASA‘s Apollo 17 mission.

Since then, NASA has launched many unmanned missions to the moon, including the prolific Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has actually photographed the Apollo moon landing sites …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

Venezuelan-owned Citgo flies flags half-mast in Texas, Louisiana for Chavez

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By Natalia Angulo

Out of respect for President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan-owned oil refiner Citgo flew its flags half-mast outside its Houston and Lake Charles, La., offices Wednesday.

Citgo told KHOU 11 News earlier Wednesday that it would lower flags, including the American flag, for Chavez. The company said it would release a statement later in the day, but a request for comment by FoxNews.com was not immediately returned.

In Houston, the flags at the refinery were lowered to half-mast as late as this afternoon, and caused a number of people to look twice as they drove by. James Post, an assistant project manager at an engineering and construction firm in Harris County, told FoxNews.com the sight was “jarring” and it was “disappointing.”

U.S. protocol allows for flags to be lowered for foreign dignitaries and Post recognized Citgo’s right to do so as a private company. However, he said upon seeing the American or Texas flag at half-mast, he immediately questioned the person being honored; and said his mind “immediately jumped to the last time we did this in the Houston-area and it was for Neil Armstrong, so, you wonder.”

Meanwhile, Terry Backhaus, a financial adviser in Louisiana, told FoxNews.com the flags at the Citgo refinery in Lake Charles had apparently been raised back by noon. “I think I used a profanity when I saw it this morning, I was disgusted,” Bakhaus said. “I didn’t believe it to be right, not for somebody who wasn’t a true American ally.”

The late Venezuelan president died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 58 after a two-year battle with cancer. Chavez’s funeral will be held Friday in Caracas. The ceremony is expected to draw leaders from all over the world including Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia.

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Thousands of Chavez’s supporters filled Caracas’ streets Wednesday to remember the man who dominated their country for 14 years.

But even amid the mass outpouring of grief, questions about the country’s future could not be put off for long, with worries amplified by the government‘s lack of regard for the letter of the constitution, and the military’s eagerness to choose political sides.

Others who bitterly opposed Chavez’s take-no-prisoners brand of socialism said they were sorry about his death, but hopeful it would usher in a less confrontational, more business-friendly era in this major oil-producing country. Under his leadership, the state expropriated key industries, raised taxes on the rich and forced many opponents into exile.

Venezuela and the United States have a complicated relationship — and animosity between Caracas and Washington was rising even in the final hours before Chavez’s death. Vice President Nicolas Maduro claimed “historical enemies” of Venezuela were behind Chavez’s cancer diagnosis.

U.S. officials quickly cast Chavez’s death as an opportunity for America to rebuild a relationship with Venezuela and for the country itself to pursue “meaningful democratic reforms,” with President Obama saying it marked a “new chapter” for the Latin American nation.

An election is expected to be held in 30 days.

Click here for more from KHOU.com.

Fox News’ Jana Winter and the Associated Press …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

History

Did Neil Armstrong lie about the origins of his ‘one small step’ speech? And did he still fluff his lines?

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By hnn

A new documentary has cast doubt on Neil Armstrong‘s claims that he came up with his iconic ‘one small step’ line hours after touching down on the surface of the moon.

The first man on the moon had stubbornly maintained up until his death in September that his historic words were unplanned, but a recent interview with his brother claims that he thought up the famous speech months before the July 1969, Apollo mission – and that the phrase he planned to utter did include an ‘a’.

Hundreds of millions around the world heard the NASA astronaut say, ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’, but Armstrong insisted that he said ‘a man’ but that the ‘a’ was not heard because of static.

In a rare interview three months after the NASA pioneers death, his brother, Dean, recalled that Neil showed him a written version of the speech months before the Apollo 11 launch, clearly stating, ‘that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.’…

Source:
Daily Mail (UK)

Source URL:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2255346/Did-Neil-Armstrong-lie-origins-small-step-speech.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Date:
12-31-12

Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University