Obama Killed My Child's Dream of Being an Astronaut

Yesterday my oldest son, who is entering elementary school, told me that he wanted to be to pirate when he grows up. This was a surprise to me, because for most of his youth he has maintained that he wanted to be an astronaut. I asked him "Why do you now no longer want to be an astronaut?" His answer stunned me.

"Dad, I don't want to be an astronaut because we don't go into outer space anymore," he said, "But there are still pirates!"

President George W Bush put in place a program that would have transitioned America from the fading Space Shuttle program to another program- perhaps the Constellation Program would have gone over budget and taken a lot longer to implement, but at least the dream of America going into outer space would have still been dreamed by young children and important scientists and engineers would have had jobs to keep them busy and their skills sharp.

Oh, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows under Bush; the mantra of NASA became 'do more with less' under his administration. But that is better than Obama's policy of 'do less with more.'

But President Obama has cancelled the Constellation Program and fired everyone in NASA who dreamed big and had a vision of Americans on the Moon and Mars. In spite of NASA's budget actually increasing under Obama's administration (from $17 billion a year in 2008 to $19 billion a year in 2011), NASA has abandoned its mission to boldly go where no man has gone before and lead America into outer space, instead becoming yet another agency devoted to the 'green religion', trading manned spaceflight and exploration for 'Earth Observation' and 'Greenhouse Gasses Monitoring.'

President Obama made the decision to end the Constellation Program and change directions for NASA, killing my child's dream of being an astronaut and exploring the starts. Before it was just policy differences, but now it's personal!

For those who want to look back on the glory days of America's time in space, try America in Space: Nasa's First Fifty Years or NASA: The Complete Illustrated History.