CAPE CANAVERAL — President Barack Obama will ask Congress to extend International Space Station operations through at least 2020 but abandon NASA's current plans to return U.S. astronauts to the moon, administration and NASA officials said Wednesday.
NASA since 2004 has invested $9 billion in developing the Constellation program's Ares I and Ares V rockets and the Apollo-style Orion crew capsule for missions to the moon, Mars and, in the event no commercial means becomes available, the International Space Station. This is particularly surprising not only because of the worldwide space rush (with both private companies and sovereign governments pumping out new hardware at an astonishing rate) but also because we were told the LCROSS bombing mission (which was meant to detect water ice beneath the permafrost) was the first step in building bases on the Moon. And if you remember, the exopolitical community cried foul in the weeks leading up to the launch: The NASA moon bombing, a component of the LCROSS mission, may also trigger conflict with known extraterrestrial civilizations on the moon as reported on the moon in witnessed statements by U.S. astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, and in witnessed statements to NSA (National Security Agency) photos and documents regarding an extraterrestrial base on the dark side of the moon.
I obviously can't corroborate any of that, but one thing is for certain- to everyone watching, the LCROSS mission was a total dud. It very much looked as if the rocket was disabled and disarmed well before it struck the surface. As Richard Hoagland wrote: No One ... anywhere on Earth -- from the most psyched amateur to the professionals at the largest terrestrial observatories, even to the Hubble Space Telescope itself in close Earth orbit -- none of these folks or instruments saw ANYTHING actually hit the surface of the south pole of the Moon!
Nevertheless, weeks after the disastrous display NASA pulled out their secret decoder rings and declared yes! the LCROSS mission was a smash success!"
