Can't spell Nauseate with NASA

The increasingly partisan fight about the funding of human space flight has become more irritating in the months since President Obama first announced he would let the shuttle program end. While I initially met this news with a certain amount of anxiety, the complete hypocracy demonstrated by Republican leadership on this issue has done nothing but convince me a privatization of space exploration will have to happen.

For what it is worth I, as benevolent dictator, would institute a hybrid privatization where space ports like Kennedy Space Center remained government operations, but the actual space travel was done by commercial operations. As soon as I organize my Dungeons and Dragons group to lead an armed insurrection, you can expect this change on the Space Coast soon.

The irony, of course, is that I consider this a fairly conservative view. End socialist space flight. I can't even think of a different phrasing that would make this seem like a liberal pinko idea. Yet Republican politicians are so interested in saving the government jobs tied to NASA, you would think this a crazy communist plot. Read this post on The Daily Caller from Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt. He says Obama's plans will "forfeit America's leadership in space and unneccesarily cut thousands of jobs across the nation." Anyone wonder how Mr. Aderholt voted on the stimulus? Anyone surprised?

Of course, here is Florida, congressmen of all political striped are angry about NASA cuts. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Democrat facing a tough re-election bid this year, says Obama's plans to scale back programs like Orion will be "leaving NASA with no detailed plan or timeline for exploring beyond Earth's orbit" and will "cede our international leadership in space." While I disagree, I at least think Kosmas makes an argument consistent with what she stands for. The same can't be said for folks like Rep. Bill Posey.

The Space Coast congressman fought against a Constellation program cut, and in a statement afterward declared "House Democrats" had shot that down by closing the amendment process in the budget. Wonder how Kosmas feels about that. "The United States will soon yield its preeminence in space to Russia," Posey pleaded to Nancy Pelosi. So there you have it. Posey wants America to be more like Russia.

Obviously, members of Congress on either side are not really upset about a plan that loses "thousands of jobs across the nation." They are upset because it cuts jobs in their districts. Heck, if the jobs were spread more they likely wouldn't care. But especially irritating about folks like Aderholt and Posey is how fiercely they fight against the creation of any other government jobs. Republicans like to say government jobs don't count the same as private sector jobs, unless the jobs are at military bases or rocket launch pads.

And that is where the nauseating NASA defense sways me even more firmly into the commercial space flight camp. Maybe it took an inspiring message from Jack Kennedy to ever get a man on the moon, but today Richard Branson makes a lot prettier pitch. It seems to me the go-get-em entrepreneurial spirit of America which Republicans seem so willing to hang our economic hat upon may actually show more promise in the space program than in any other arena.

And if I'm wrong, then Richard Branson can always ask Congress for a bailout. And wouldn't the thrill of watching that vote go down be worth it?