LatinoTalk Texas 2014, 0020 Lamenting the loss of Constellation Program

On today's show, the nature and importance of our space programs, its influence on our daily lives, and the importance of the prestige associated with our manned space program as it is the hallmark of a "global power." I explain in the first segment how space program affects our daily lives.  Then I discuss the nature of the Constellation Program and its brilliance as being derived from the Space Shuttle system and how Obama cancelled it abruptly. I also discuss the value of the Moon for developing and testing long duration space flight and habitation and mention the several problems that have happened concerning human factors in space flight aboard both Russian and American spacecraft and how America still has more research to do concerning long duration space flight that would be necessary to go to Mars or an asteroid. It makes more sense to return to the Moon to learn those things rather than rush out to an asteroid or Mars without knowing how to do it successfully. I explain the geniuses who caused the cancellation of the Constellation program, Huntress and Holdren, and why they were wrong. Finally, I discuss the minimal reconstitution of the Constellation Program by Congress in the Space Launch System, called SLS, and its terrible slow roll from Obama and Holden and that rocket and its Orion capsule won't be launched, manned, until the early 2020's and we could be flying NOW if Constellation was left in place.