US concerned NASA will be overtaken by China’s space program::undefined

  • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Gee whiz, maybe we should have been properly funding our space program all of these years instead of wasting it on making the military industrial complex filthy fucking rich and the world less secure overall?

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Especially stupid considering last time they gave the space program appropriate funding, it led to a lot of advancements that the military industrial complex could use.

      • Windex007@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You make it sound like the military advancements were an unexpected byproduct, as opposed to the real goal.

        • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          The goal was optics. Kennedy didn’t know what advances would result from Apollo. He wanted to show that the US was better at science and technology than Russia.

          • Windex007@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            The science of putting a ballistic payload anywhere, including heaven.

            The space race was awesome because it let the two countries measure their dicks (specifically their military dicks) without actually obliterating the planet.

            The “for all mankind” angle was a great way to frame things for the population of Earth, for sure. But just like mobile chemical WMD labs in Iraq, sometimes the given justification and actual justification are two different things.

            Don’t get me wrong, there absolutely were beneficial optics. Something doesn’t have to just be for one thing. But it was always primarily about practical demonstration of weapons capacity under the facade of human exploration.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      People behind the scenes are siphoning NASA space research money and turning it into space profit instead. The growth of private space companies starting in the US is no coincidence. Blame oligarchs for steering the country into a dead end.