Source: CBS
As the final U.S. space shuttle lands for the last time, Mark Strassmann reports on the privately owned companies racing to re-launch America’s manned space program.

According to the newly installed head of NASA, Charles Bolden, the Obama administration has tasked him with three main goals for the space program going forward — and none of them involve space…or exploration…or anything NASA was founded for in the first place.

1. “Re-inspire” children to want to get into science and math

2. Expand international relationships

3. Engage with Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

Yeah, I feel like I’m in The Twilight Zone too. Bolden said number three is perhaps his most important mission. I’m not sure WTF Muslims have to do with NASA or the space program, but this is just bizarre.

Islamic nations haven’t made any worthy contributions to science in centuries. Most Muslim countries are still living in the 17th century. Women aren’t even allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.

I guess we should congratulate them on perfecting the improvised explosive device (IED) to kill the maximum number of our troops even in armored Humvees. They were pretty creative when they hijacked our airplanes and knocked our buildings down too. That was engineering genius at its best.

You can add this NASA charade to the long list of disgraceful acts by our pathetic president.

Here’s Charles Bolden telling Al-Jazeera about NASA’s Muslim outreach program — try to keep from losing your lunch.

Our space program that is the envy of the world is about to keep its feet firmly planted here on earth thanks to President Obama.

In the upcoming budget Obama plans to scrap NASA’s plans to return to the moon and the new rockets that were supposed to get them their.

When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.

There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.

I particularly have a problem with NASA losing funds for building a new space ship that is sure to be a boondoggle of that will cost taxpayers billions and billions in cost overruns. I’m betting the private sector will build something on its own that will be better in the end anyway.

That said, it’s what Obama wants NASA to focus on instead instead of space exploration that really sucks:

…the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change — and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system possible.

I’ll save the taxpayers billions of dollars and let the president in on a little secret — the climate is and has always changed. But much to the chagrin of the president, Al Gore, and social justice dickheads everywhere — humans aren’t responsible for that.

A researcher from the American Enterprise Institute says he’s been trying for two years to get NASA to comply with his Freedom of Information Act request for their raw climate data.

Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and would explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data going as far back as the 1930s.

"I assume that what is there is highly damaging," Mr. Horner said. "These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this."

This is the same data at the heart of the “Climategate” scandal in which hacked emails revealed that U.K. climatologists manipulated raw climate data to fit their man-made global warming theory. The scientists now admit they threw out all the raw data and only have their manipulated data to show proof of warming.

The raw data is what serves as the entire foundation for global warming. Without it, it’s impossible for any independent observer to see if the scientists are accurate with their conclusions. In other words, we’ll have to just trust Al Gore and his cronies.

Horner now says he’s prepared to sue NASA to force them to comply with his FOIA request. However, he hopes the Climategate scandal will make Congress demand NASA cough up the raw data.

Take a look at these amazing pictures of the Space Shuttle passing in front of the sun on its way to dock with the Hubble Space Telescope:

Photos via The Sun

Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a moon walker and veteran of the Apollo 14 mission, says that aliens do indeed exist. According to Mitchell, aliens have visited earth on a number of occasions but the incidents have been cleverly covered up for the last six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’

He said supposedly real-life ET’s were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

“I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real,” Dr Mitchell said.

“It’s been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it’s leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

“I’ve been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes – we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it’s been happening quite a bit.”

I’m actually inclined to believe Dr. Mitchell. I find it far-fetched that we are really alone in the universe considering the size of the universe. When you think about all the galaxies and all the planets in the universe, it’s nearly inconceivable that we’re alone.

The sheer volume of evidence suggesting the existence of aliens is becoming to large to deny. It’s almost laughable when up to 100 people see something in the sky that is absolutely not of this world and the government will say it’s a “Weather balloon.” As tired as that excuse is, for some reason it continues to be used on a regular basis.

Polls show the majority of Americans do believe in aliens, and do believe the government is covering it up. Kudos to Dr. Mitchell for his honesty on the subject.

(click photo to enlarge)

This is a recently released picture of the earth and moon as seen from the the surface of Mars. This an amazing picture, imagine how far home would look if that was you standing on Mars.

(Via Boing Boing)

NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft has successfully touched down on Mars.

Phoenix will be the first spacecraft to study the arctic plains on Mars’ north pole. The craft has a robotic arm that will drill into the Martian ice and retrieve samples which will be analyzed and studied remotely from earth.

Scientists will try to determine if the permafrost has the ingredients needed for life to emerge.

-Chris Jones

The head of Russia’s space agency Sunday said the US has rebuffed an offer from Moscow to jointly explore the moon, while announcing a separate contract with NASA for nearly one billion dollars for the International Space Station. Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia had proposed pooling resources to explore the moon.

“We were ready to cooperate but for unknown reasons, the United States have said they will undertake this programme themselves,” he said.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in December said it envisaged setting up a manned base, possibly on the moon’s south pole, by around 2020, powered by sunlight and perhaps hydrogen and oxygen, with astronauts cruising over the lunar surface in pressurized rovers.

Perminov said Roskosmos had meanwhile signed with NASA a “contract for nearly one billion dollars” — an unprecedented sum — to supply cargo shuttles between now and 2011 for the US segment of the International Space Station.

The US-led ISS draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil.

[Breitbart]