I Love This

Found this as a comment on NASA Watch. And even though I think about it more sensitively, this is good:

You guys need to get out of the Constellation echo chamber and listen to reality. No one is abdicating America's lead in space, and no one has taken the Moon off the table as a destination. In fact, if anything we'll be leaving Earth orbit sooner than the 2028 date that Constellation would have handed us.

We're going to save the few bits of Constellation that actually made sense. You'll see that Orion on top of an Atlas V, but it will be called the Boeing/Bigelow capsule, will seat seven, and (since it's on top of a far superior launch vehicle) will have a toilet instead of buggy springs for seats. Alongside of the Boeing solution you'll also see at least three other vehicles with different characteristics and strengths, reflecting the vitality of free enterprise as opposed to the central planning approach you so cherish.

We're going to get that heavy launch vehicle, we're going to get it sooner than 2028, it's going to cost less, and it's not going to blow a hole in the ozone layer every time it blasts off. You'll probably see Buzz Aldrin have a fair amount of input in its design; the guy is true American patriot with a good dose of common sense.

As for game changers, if you don't try to make them exist, they never will. The attitudes you guys show would have never made the cut back in the Apollo days.

Constellation is dead; get used to it because Congress will not bring it back. If you won't help us shape the future of manned spaceflight, then leave. We've got work to do.