New Right

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known as “NASA,” has been a major pillar of American society since its founding in 1958. Responsible for all American space exploration, NASA has captured the imaginations of American citizens for more than five decades. Today, NASA’s role has been altered somewhat. They are no longer the only player in the American space race, but they are still the biggest kids on the playground.

History of NASA

NASA was founded on July 26th, 1958, to replace NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics). It was created as a response to the “Sputnik crisis,” which referred to the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik–the first man-made satellite in space. Deeply embroiled in the Cold War, President Eisenhower saw Sputnik as a troubling sign of technological superiority, and began to pour funds into the new Space program in the U.S.A. for the sake of security. NASA took over NACA’s operations, as well as Werner von Braun’s German rocket program, many older research efforts by the U.S. Air Force, and the JPL–a facility originally owned and run by CalTech.

Important Missions

NASA’s work began with Project Mercury, which was primarily designed to find out if humans could survive in space at all. In May of 1961, Project Mercury became a success, when astronaut Alan Sheperd became the first American in space–one month after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The Russians were winning the space race, so NASA turned its attention to the race for the moon, founding Project Apollo. Apollo couldn’t stand alone, however; NASA founded Project Gemini as a support for Apollo, which helped scientists learn about life in low-earth orbit.

In July of 1969, after years of trial and error and nearly $191 billion dollars (in current USD), Apollo 11 landed successfully on the moon, and Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on an extra-terrestrial surface. Five more Apollo missions to the moon were conducted, with the last in 1972.

Space Stations

After the success of the Apollo missions, space programs the world over turned their attention to low-Earth orbit. In 1973, NASA launched Skylab–the only U.S.-owned space station–which stayed in orbit until 1979, when it fell into the atmosphere and was destroyed. By then, the Cold War was finally ending, and the U.S. and Russia allied to create the Apollo-Soyuz Project, which was only the first step in decades of international partnership, which would eventually lead to the International Space Station (which also includes Japanese and European efforts). Other projects include the Hubble Space Teleschope, and the Space Shuttle Program, including the disastrous Challenger and Columbia crashes.

Private Space Travel

In recent years, budget cuts and waning public interest have seen NASA losing out to private space travel companies, like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. However, NASA is still very much in business, with plans to explore Mars and the outer planets over the next few decades. The future is bright for American space travel.

When election terms roll around for the presidency the American public starts watching the debates. This upcoming election term in 2012 is currently in need of a Republican candidate for president. The Republican National Debates is simply where the Republican national party gets together their best candidates and hopefuls for their party to run in the upcoming election. In this particular case, since Barrack Obama is the incumbent president, he is automatically chosen as the Democrat candidate in the next election. What is still left undecided is who will run against him. Through a series of debates, the list will be narrowed down into candidates for which registered Republicans can vote in the primaries. The entire process of the debates is to narrow down the current potential nominees until there is one person worthy of the Republican nomination. Once the states vote in the primaries and the Republican Party candidate is chosen, then a series of debates will start against the Republican and Democratic candidates for president. In this case, it will be the Republican candidate and President Barrack Obama.

Each debate focuses on various issues that are important to the American people. This year, there are 26 debates scheduled for 2011-2012. To date, nearly half of these debates have already taken place. The latest debate was on the issue of security. There were several people who have participated in this event and the list included Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rich Santorum. The DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC hosted the 11th debate. This event was sponsored by The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute and CNN.

The events can become rather heated as the potential candidates voice strong opinions on various subjects. The issue of homeland security is one that the American people feel is of great importance. The Republican candidates mostly have a more conservative view of the political agendas. The American people usually want to know about issues such as abortion, the economy, a possible health care plan, jobs, and the housing market. These issues have a substantial polarity across the country. With great pressure, these candidates must answer questions and they are rated with a score based on how well they did. It does not matter if they are for or against a certain issue; it all depends on how well the candidates articulate their ideas and how it resonates with GOP voters. At the end of the night, there is no clear winner; however, the press tends to try to make a case for those who they think did well.

The Republican party generally tends to have a great voice in the land for those who want to err on the side of caution and keep a religious aspect in America. Most of these potential nominees are expected to be fiscally conservative and either moderate or right-winged on topics such as taxation, the deficit, abortion, gay marriage, and other issues in debate. The GOP nominee will then be debating the same issues with the incumbent President Obama.