About ten years ago I was driving through north Dallas, when I spotted a fireball in the sky. I never did find out for sure what it was but I figured it might've been a satellite re-entering.
Because it looked like it might come down inside, you know, a major metropolitan area, I called 911. Boy, was that fun. The dispatcher I got clearly thought I was drunk or something. Then, about 30 seconds in, after I assume a bunch of other calls came in, he changed his attitude and sounded like he was taking me seriously.
This would be the same NASA that still has difficulty translating between feet and meters?
The one whose main efforts, from their own PR, are Muslim inclusion and globull warming?
The one who hasn't put anyone in space in...what, over a decade?
If they're going to replicate the mission of NACA from 1951 and counting - backwards - they should change the name back to match, as their chief mission is now to explain that UFO crashes were weather balloons, and the military has even pulled the rug out from under them on that artifact from the late 1940s. They only keep "Space" in their title to keep people from confusing them with the FAA.
If it weren't for Musk, Branson, et al, their entire functions would have devolved to the Smithsonian, and a couple of guys working for the Naval Observatory, janitorial caretakers from the GSA, and a couple of Air Farce guys on liaison from Vandenburg.
With (to date) $200B pissed away over the last decade for functions that could have been handled privately for free, "What is NASA?" is pretty much the correct $500 Jeopardyanswer to the category of "Government Programs That Never Die".
Notice that none of the options on that half-clever chart is US manned space launch. And I'm betting their personnel actually need that chart on a regular basis to answer serious queries.
NASA is what happened to the fat girl at the prom dance, after she stayed home for the next decade, and ate herself to world-record territory for body weight: just sad.
When people in Hollywood screenplays like Matt Damon and Jeff Daniels have a better grasp of what you should be doing than you do yourselves collectively, it's time to either get a life, or just move on.
I'm mainly surprised most by the fact that NASA isn't a nonstop chain of stories about people sitting around in a pile of paper cups and empty vodka bottles five days a week, slowly drinking themselves to death on duty, and the fact that their most famous astronaut of the last ten years is the certifiably batshit crazy chick that put on Depends before setting off on a cross-country road trip to kill her ex-BF's new gf tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the agency formerly in charge of anything notable. They've gone from being regulars on the TODAY Show and GMA to being regulars on Jerry Springer and Coast to Coast with George Noory.
I'd bet cash money that on a national survey, no one, and/or certainly less than 5% of Americans under 25, even knows who they are or what they do, probably including a majority of their own employees in that age bracket, and pretty much all of their top management.
What? No "Is it getting closer while the air-raid sirens and emergency broadcasting system is saying 'we're all gonna die'?
ReplyDeleteI've seen re-entry vehicles come burning down towards me. Pretty to look at. As long as they're not actual real-life warhead armed re-entry vehicles.
About ten years ago I was driving through north Dallas, when I spotted a fireball in the sky. I never did find out for sure what it was but I figured it might've been a satellite re-entering.
ReplyDeleteBecause it looked like it might come down inside, you know, a major metropolitan area, I called 911. Boy, was that fun. The dispatcher I got clearly thought I was drunk or something. Then, about 30 seconds in, after I assume a bunch of other calls came in, he changed his attitude and sounded like he was taking me seriously.
LOL, it's NOT wrong...
ReplyDeleteThis would be the same NASA that still has difficulty translating between feet and meters?
ReplyDeleteThe one whose main efforts, from their own PR, are Muslim inclusion and globull warming?
The one who hasn't put anyone in space in...what, over a decade?
If they're going to replicate the mission of NACA from 1951 and counting - backwards - they should change the name back to match, as their chief mission is now to explain that UFO crashes were weather balloons, and the military has even pulled the rug out from under them on that artifact from the late 1940s. They only keep "Space" in their title to keep people from confusing them with the FAA.
If it weren't for Musk, Branson, et al, their entire functions would have devolved to the Smithsonian, and a couple of guys working for the Naval Observatory, janitorial caretakers from the GSA, and a couple of Air Farce guys on liaison from Vandenburg.
With (to date) $200B pissed away over the last decade for functions that could have been handled privately for free, "What is NASA?" is pretty much the correct $500 Jeopardyanswer to the category of "Government Programs That Never Die".
Notice that none of the options on that half-clever chart is US manned space launch. And I'm betting their personnel actually need that chart on a regular basis to answer serious queries.
NASA is what happened to the fat girl at the prom dance, after she stayed home for the next decade, and ate herself to world-record territory for body weight: just sad.
When people in Hollywood screenplays like Matt Damon and Jeff Daniels have a better grasp of what you should be doing than you do yourselves collectively, it's time to either get a life, or just move on.
I'm mainly surprised most by the fact that NASA isn't a nonstop chain of stories about people sitting around in a pile of paper cups and empty vodka bottles five days a week, slowly drinking themselves to death on duty, and the fact that their most famous astronaut of the last ten years is the certifiably batshit crazy chick that put on Depends before setting off on a cross-country road trip to kill her ex-BF's new gf tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the agency formerly in charge of anything notable. They've gone from being regulars on the TODAY Show and GMA to being regulars on Jerry Springer and Coast to Coast with George Noory.
I'd bet cash money that on a national survey, no one, and/or certainly less than 5% of Americans under 25, even knows who they are or what they do, probably including a majority of their own employees in that age bracket, and pretty much all of their top management.