A segue here to another Bush abomination. Americans aren't just asleep, they're brain dead. They can't see everything that Bush is taking away--he is so much worse than Reagan for enriching his friends. This from a news release, then some observations from an engineer friend of mine below it:

Jan. 17, 2004, 2:21PM

Hubble's doom in the stars: NASA to retire its telescope

By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Two days after President Bush redirected NASA toward the moon and Mars, the space agency on Friday announced the first casualty: the Hubble Space Telescope.

"This is a sad day," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief scientist and a four-time shuttle astronaut. The decision shook the astronomy world.

Grunsfeld said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe made the decision and broke the news to workers at Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland on Friday morning, saying a planned space shuttle mission to service the telescope would be canceled.

The bus-size telescope, which has been sending home spectacular images of the universe for over a decade and forced the rewriting of astronomy textbooks, will continue its mission until it wears out -- likely by 2007 or 2008, Grunsfeld said.

Then NASA will launch a robotic spacecraft to grab the telescope and guide it through the Earth's atmosphere to splash down in a remote area of an ocean.

NASA scientists and engineers working on Hubble eventually will be shifted to the new moon-Mars effort, Grunsfeld said.

The rest of it is at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/space/2358102.

My friend, an aerospace engineer, remarked:

It was pretty clear what is going on, unfortunately there are a bunch of zombies in the country that can not read. The BBC had a story back in December stating that the white house was feeling out reporters about a bush speech where he would announce a return to space and the mars mission. The white house source asked if the reporter if he thought bush should give the speech at kitty hawk for the 100 the anniversary of flight. The reporter asked how the mars mission could be funded due to the huge deficits. The source said that was the beautiful part, it would/could not be funded, but that the president could look presidential, and give a lofty goal speech. I had hoped he had abandoned the idea when the speech was not delivered at the kitty hawk site. I suppose he is coming under a little pressure to match the Chinese announcements about their space programs. What he had better think about is the trade deficit, the dollar dropping 26 percent against the euro, and the budget deficit. I think the back to back father and son recessions are making Clinton look better all the time. That reminds me, I am going to frame the letter I got from Clinton, that should make some of my neighbors eyes roll, ha. I am so tired of hearing, "that Bush is such a nice Christian man", SHIT!

SRS