Some proponents of the lackluster Obama NASA proposal continue to criticize the growing number of experienced engineers and scientists, former astronauts (including Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan, and Jim Lovell among many), politicians, journalists, and former administrators who speak out against the cancellation of Constellation. The rationale? These people are voices of the past who have had their time to shine… let the common people have their say and let the NewSpace community have its shot. When is it wise to disregard experience and wisdom to embrace the lofty promises of inexperience? Further, the common people are speaking, and they are overwhelmingly in favor of Constellation, our Nation’s continued leadership in space, and our plan to return to the moon. Our basis for this claim? The number one social networking site in America: Facebook.
As we have said before, if Democracy is about numbers of voters interested in a policy, we’d have to conclude that the President’s new policy isn’t likely to survive when a massive ratio of people oppose those policies as approve of them. A comparison of one pro-Constellation group alone, with over 22000 members, to another favoring NASA’s new direction, with only 279 members, shows a massive 79:1 favoring for the Constellation program by the voices of everyday people.
Here is a list of pro-Constellation groups against the Administration’s plans,
- Save NASA’s Constellation and Manned Space Flight Program 22,067
Support NASA and the Space Program 16,704
Support the NASA Constellation Program 5,121
Save America’s Space Program 14,699
Save NASA! 20,596
Save the Utah Aerospace Economy 887
Pro-Constellation total: 80,074
Meanwhile, here’s a list of groups favoring or standing to gain from the Administration’s plans,
- NASA’s New Direction 279
NASA Watch Facebook 252
Commercial Spaceflight Federation 993
Commercial Space Place 90
Commercial Space Travel 132
SpaceX 1,291
Next Step In Space 1,306
Anti-Constellation total: 4,343
