U.S. could lose aging eyes in the sky
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/us/us-satellite-crunch/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Our once-great science and technology advantage is steadily being eroded by short-term thinking and anti-science attitude amongst our political ‘leaders’. In addition to the mentioned two failures (yes, I know blasting things into orbit is a $100 million dollar gamble, but am I the only one that thinks our recent failures are due to stupidity more than anything else?) we have several that are not operating to spec. That this state is ‘OK’ is quite telling as a society. That our political leaders say that this is OK because we can just get the same information from other country’s satellites is to demonstrate how far we have come from a leadership position. It is getting to the point that the only way the US can claim superiority is in the number of aircraft carriers, something that only shows how morally corrupt our leaders have become. Bridges, roads, waterways, now satellites. Our cellular network is way behind Europe and Asia because our corporate owners want to maximize the return on their investment and work like the dickens to prohibit any sort of competition that might interfere with that. Activity, btw, that would be considered anti-competitive and illegal if we actually lived in a nation of laws, but heck, we should just be happy that we can still turn on the lights and get (mostly safe) water at the tap!
