Keep in shooting for the moon

Earlier this week, the Obama administration released their proposed 2011 budget, and there are two items that are very disturbing for the economy of this area. President Obama’s budget plans to cut the funding for the Constellation project and the Ares I rocket. The Constellation project was started by President George W. Bush to set up a base on the moon to be used as a stepping-stone to other space journeys to planets like Mars. The Ares I rocket would replace the aging space shuttle program and be used to shuttle supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.

We think this is a major mistake on the president’s part for two reasons. First, and most importantly, the loss of these programs directly affects St. Tammany Parish. Many of the parish residents work at the Michoud Assembly Center and the Stennis Space Center. With the space shuttle program winding down, the area was hoping the Constellation and Ares projects would keep our economy going strong. If these two programs are scrapped, it could mean hundreds of lost jobs, lost business and lost tax revenue for our area.

The other reason that we should not abandon manned spaceflight is that NASA and the space program been responsible for many technological and scientific advances in the past 50 years. If it were not for the first moon program, the integrated chip would never have been invented, and we would not have the personal computer and all its spin offs today. NASA scientists and engineers have made many discoveries that affect everybody for the good.

Slowing down our exploration of space is not a good thing. Cutting the NASA budget could be a death knell for our parish and our local economy.

The fragile national economy is finally making its effect felt here in St. Tammany Parish. Cities and towns are feeling the pinch after several years of dodging the bullet. The president has made jobs a priority, so we are wondering why he is proposing budget cuts that would eliminate thousands of job.

The budget still has to be passed by Congress, so we urge all citizens here to get in touch with Sen. David Vitter, Sen. Mary Landrieu, and Congressman Steve Scalise and tell them to vote down any budget cuts to NASA and the manned space program.