[FPSPACE] Griiffin's Giant...Chinese may be first to put taikonauts on Moon before USA returns

[pjp]

This has echoes of the 1960s....

"Webb's Giant"...... LOL

Except now, it's "Griffin's Giant"...

But we now know that Webb wasn't fibbing or fooling around...the J vehicle
Moon rocket was real, and so was the USSR's manned lunar program efforts.

So maybe Griffin isn't fibbing either.

Speaking of the USSR's manned lunar program...

The article on Globalsecurity.org has had a big response in readers.  John
Pike informed me earlier this week that that the "visits" have surpassed
12,000.

Not bad, considering it's not about the global war on terror or celebrities
misbehaving.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/library/report/2007/deep-politics.htm





-----Original Message-----
From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org
[mailto:fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org] On Behalf Of LARRY KLAES
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 10:05 AM
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: [FPSPACE] NASA Chief Says China May Make It To the Moon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031501
830.html

NASA Chief Says China May Make It To the Moon

By Marc Kaufman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, March 16, 2007; A06

The next humans to walk on the moon may well be Chinese, NASA's 
administrator told Congress yesterday. He said that the combination of 
budget cuts and restraints in the NASA lunar program and a determined and 
well-funded effort by the Chinese made that once-unthinkable possibility a 
real one.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the House Committee on Science and 
Technology that, based on the status of the Chinese space program and its 
projected growth, China could land a man on the moon within a decade. Under 
current projections, a U.S. lunar return would not take place until 2019 at 
the earliest.

"If they wanted to mount a lunar mission, they could do so," Griffin said. 
"And yes, they could get to the moon before we return."

The Chinese space program employs about 200,000 people, Griffin said, while 
NASA has a workforce of about 75,000.

Griffin's assessment came during a day of NASA budget hearings in which both

Republicans and Democrats decried a lack of funding for NASA, which has been

given many ambitious missions.

In addition to undertaking President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration to 
take Americans back to the moon and beyond, NASA is tasked with such popular

and costly projects as sending shuttles to the international space station 
until it is completed in 2010, and then helping operate it.

In House and Senate hearings, lawmakers described the distance between 
NASA's missions and its budget as a "train wreck," as a possible precursor 
to safety problems, and as a pulling back from the U.S. commitment to remain

the leading spacefaring nation.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations 
subcommittee for NASA, called yesterday for a bipartisan, House-Senate NASA 
summit at the White House, similar to one held by President George H.W. Bush

in 1989.


_______________________________________________
FPSPACE mailing list
FPSPACE at friends-partners.org
http://www.friends-partners.org/mailman/listinfo/fpspace