Apr 122011
 

X-38 V-132 is now on display at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska. It’s a pity that X-38 V-201 is not now on display at the National Air and Space Museum after having been dropped from orbit…

The X-38 program was projected to cost $2 billion, but was cancelled in 2002 due to budget cuts. A note: the 2002 budget for Medicare was $226 billion. In 2010, $452 billion. So… huzzah. Another budgetary success story. Way to rein things in, guys.

 Posted by at 7:42 pm

  8 Responses to “NASA X-38 CRV”

  1. How about cutting some of Medicare and putting that toward the space program?

    $2 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to what is spent on Social Security and Medicare. I think we spend more on Medicare than National Defense.

    We can cut out Medicare and put that money to putting people to work and then they can afford their own health care!!! And then we can rebuild our space program.

    The NASA X-38 CRV is a great concept. I see us getting more out of the NASA X-38 CRV program than we do out of Medicare. Hell, giving that money to NASA would have a better impact on society and futher reaching effects.

  2. Look at your pay stub.
    Medicare and Social Security is funded (or over-funded in some years)
    by a specific payroll tax. If you cut Medicare, you could reduce that 3%
    tax, but You would have to implement a new ‘Space’ tax on every paycheck
    in the country.

    Yea, that would make space *Really* popular.

    -G.

  3. V-201 was never dropped from orbit…

  4. So, Medicare is health insurance for those over 65, or those under 65 with certain disabilities, and anyone with permanent kidney failure. We cut out medicare, get the old codgers back to work, put the disabled and folks with kidey failure back to work, they pay for their own health insurance, and we explore space.

    Works for me.

  5. Unfortunately they did pay for their insurance, it was called FICA on their
    pay-stub. are you going to pay them all back ?

    And kidney failure requires dialysis which costs about $15k per month.
    Medicare doesn’t kick in for 24 months. It’s tough to work during it, but not impossible. of course it would require a take home pay of well over $180,000 per year.

    Most would just die.

    Then you can cancel the payroll tax,
    but still need to find more money for NASA.

    But how much money would you have to give to
    NASA to make them a lean, efficient, exploration machine ?
    Adding money to a bureaucracy rarely makes it do anything but
    grow.

    Hey, look at the shuttle program. Stop flying and give away all the
    vehicles and the price tag is down to only $1.5B a year!

    Good luck with that !
    -G.

  6. > Unfortunately they did pay for their insurance, it was called FICA on their
    pay-stub.

    It’s called a “pyramid scheme.” And you really only have two choices: kill it, and tell those who paid in but did not get paid back that they are SOL… but know that *future* generations won’t be saddled with it; or let it keep going, ensnaring future generations in perpetuity (or until collapse).

    Medicare has approximately doubled in a decade. What will it be in another decade? Two? Adding money to a bureaucracy rarely makes it do anything but grow.

    > But how much money would you have to give to NASA to make them a lean, efficient, exploration machine ?

    None. Change the model. As with Mediscam, NASA could do far more with far less if it worked on a competative model.

  7. V-201 was SLATED to be flown from orbit. It’s at JSC, 80% complete.

  8. Admin wrote:
    “… NASA could do far more with far less if it worked on a competative model… ”

    Or getting Congress out of the rocket-design, program/goal/contractor decision process. That would help a HELL of a lot :o)

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