Shutting down manned space program!

• Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham, in an op-ed in the Feb. 27, 2010 Houston Chronicle, wrote: "Except in wartime, there has never been another government program that produced as much technological innovation as the U.S. space program, and there likely never will be...." Cunninghman juxtaposed the ending of Constellation to the proposed "increased spending on the discredited global warming hypocrisy."

"Have we really degenerated as a country to the point where we can no longer fund our own exploration? Did we spend $460 billion becoming pre-eminent in space, only to stupidly surrender it?"

• On April 12, 2010, nineteen astronauts, whose service spanned from the early 1960s Mercury program to the Space Shuttle, joined by former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, legendary flight director Gene Kranz, and Apollo-era director of the Johnson Space Center Chris Kraft, sent a letter to President Obama, expressing their outrage at the attempt to shut down manned space exploration, as the nation's space program is "reduced to mediocrity."

"For those of us who have accepted the risk and dedicated a portion of our lives to the exploration of outer space, this is a terrible decision. America's greatness lies in her people: she will always have men and women willing to ride rockets into the heavens.

"Too many men and women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to achieve America's preeminence in space, only to see that effort needlessly thrown away.... This is not the time to abandon the promise of the space frontier for a lack of will or an unwillingness to pay the price."

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