The Mainstream Media Should Stop Neglecting NASA
Shown above is the breath taking footage of NASA’s Ares I-X test rocket from yesterday. As usual NASA kicked ass with the six minute flight of a next generation space craft. Sadly for NASA everything went well, so now just a day later nobody in the mainstream media even mentions this story which got very little mention yesterday. Had the rocket blown up the chattering classes would be hard at work on this story this minute and for weeks to come — and this is a symptom of a larger problem. The mainstream media isn’t covering the real story which is that NASA is dying from negligence.
In the press conference that followed NASA went into great detail on the success of the mission, but what they didn’t say that there’s a huge cloud hanging over the agency. Everyone at NASA wants to see a return to the moon and then a trip to Mars, but the budget isn’t there. For the last few months there’s been a dance of various studies and committees of experts to look into the matter but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that manned space exploration requires some serious investment.
Frankly I can’t blame the Obama administration for putting this on the back burner — we’re fighting two wars and there’s a huge fight on healthcare, and least we forget the economy is still a huge mess. So I can see why Washington hasn’t made this a huge issue, but frankly it amazes me that the mainstream media (both left and right) hasn’t picked up on this story. It’s as if after they buried Walter Cronkite they tossed NASA into his coffin. Even Lou Dobbs who use to run Space.com can seem to grasp that NASA needs some love and investment.
My bet is that this negligence may go on for a few years, in many ways it’s been going on for decades. Although I think as fanboys and fangurls of NASA we should keep the dream alive every chance we get, and that’s why I write about here. I think the only thing that may spark interest in the American space program might be if China or India pulls off a moon landing — that just might light the spark that we need.