THE NEW DISGRACE – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  This administration has the word "failure" written all over it.  And one of the greatest failures may be in its handling of the American space program.

Did you ever think you'd see the day when Americans would have to depend on Russian rockets to get astronauts into space?  Well, that day has arrived with the retirement of our space shuttles, which have been hurried off to museums around the country.  And the Russian rockets?  Well, one unmanned model just blew up, placing the international space station in jeopardy.  It's hard to believe this is happening.   Andrew Malcolm of the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket blog, has the infuriating story of American decline:

Will the International Space Station actually be abandoned this fall after $100 billion and 10 years?

That's one of the questions being pondered by NASA and Russian space experts following last week's failure of an unmanned Russian cargo rocket. The U.S. fleet of space shuttles is retired and the Obama administration has no American alternative coming online for years.

So, dubious Russian rockets are the only means of replacing the crew.

A computer detected an anomaly in the Russian rocket's third stage Wednesday and shut down the engine prematurely after barely five minutes of flight, dooming the orbital attempt. The vehicle and nearly three tons of supplies were incinerated in reentry and the crash in Kazakhstan.

With the U.S. space shuttles decommissioned, Russian rockets remain the only means to reach the space station orbiting at about 220 miles altitude with fresh crew members.

Officials said the six-man crew on the station now is not endangered, having sufficient supplies from the last shuttle delivery of Atlantis in July to make it to the next supply mission with a European rocket in early 2012

Two Soyuz spacecraft are docked at the station, enabling the international crew to return to Earth as their permissible limits in the weightlessness of space are reached.

However, arrival of new crew members is delayed indefinitely pending a Russian commission's investigation and resolution of last week's engine failure.

The fall's entire space schedule is now under review. And if new launches are delayed past mid-November, the huge orbiting complex could be abandoned for an indeterminate time.

COMMENT:  Maybe the administration should have extended its "cash for clunkers" program to Russian rockets.  It is embarrassing to this country that we've reached this moment.  Could we not have kept some capacity to get into space until the next generation of American rockets is ready.

We point out that one of the missions given NASA by the current administration was "Muslim outreach."  Maybe that mission can be put off for a bit in favor of something more, oh, nuts-and-bolts. 

One reason for our current predicament is budget cutting.  And it demonsrates that you can't just take an ax to the federal budget.  There are priorities.  Budgets should be cut, but carefully, and with common sense. 

August 30, 2011