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20th Century Fox
The Death Star was a fearsome battle station in the Star Wars saga - but purely fictional.
The White House says building a Death Star would be an out-of-this-galaxy waste of money — not only because it's against government policy to blow up planets, but also because the United States already has access to a space station as well as a laser-wielding space robot.
Today's official statement on the Death Star issue, titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For," was written by Paul Shawcross, chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget. It comes in response to a "We the People" petition that called on the federal government to start building a "Star Wars"-style Death Star battle station by 2016.
"By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense," the petition read.
The petition garnered more than 25,000 online signatures within a month, partly due to a signing campaign that went viral on 4chan, Reddit and Twitter. Under the Obama administration's rules for the "We the People" program, that required the White House to come up with a reply.
Shawcross and his colleagues clearly rose to the challenge, with an essay that should satisfy the policy geeks as well as the "Star Wars" geeks. Here's the full text:
This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For
"The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
"However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky — that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.
"Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.
"Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.
"We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.
"We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.
"If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force."
Update for 9:35 p.m. ET Jan. 11: The White House statement quickly sparked a Twitter response from Darth Vader himself: "A serious mistake, Mr. President. You can never have enough planet-sized lasers."
Update for 1:40 a.m. ET Jan. 12: NASA may brag about the space station and its laser-equipped Curiosity rover, but that's not enough, Death Star PR says in a Twitter update: "Until you put the laser and the space station together and start blowing up planets, you're not doing enough Science."
Other spaced-out petitions:
- White House: No E.T. visits, no UFO cover-up
- Petition calls for development of nuclear rocket
- White House urged to build Starship Enterprise
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
The name Death Star is bad enough .
How about a life type star ?
Try something big on the Moon first , maybe .
A Life Star!
How many think this "Petition" Site is really Stupid?
What is most frightening is people were stupid enough to sign the petition thinking they had a chance. We need to invest more in education in this country instead of video games.........
I literally wondered before going to the comments how long it would take for a bleeding-heart to not get the joke, not accept the joke or simply be a joke.
First post......with follow-on comments to boot. IXLR8 - the Death Star dates back to a late '70's movie when Pong was about as good as it got.
The level of take-myself-too-seriously is "Impressive. Most impressive."
WHAT THE??!!! How bout the economy Mr. Joker of a President..... Good Grief
Times-Running-Out
How many think this "Petition" Site is really Stupid?
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Gotta separate the chaff from the wheat. There are some decent ideas there and some are treating it as a joke. Our country is full of vastly different people. Why would anyone expect anything accessible to most of them to not have a vast array of submissions?
Had the GOP occupied the WH, they would have been all over this. I mean, they support 2 billion for bombers while our schools are falling apart.
I signed that petition.
It seems petitions mean little these days. Many people will put their name to any outrageous idea without repercussions.
I'm saddened by this,as it means any petition I sign is worthless.
No Death Star???
Lord Cheney will definitely not... be... pleased.
After all, it's much less impressive to attempt to dominate from an "undisclosed location." It just doesn't sound ominous enough. No panache.
Well, I'm not gonna be the one to tell him!
Get one of the "red shirt" guys from Star Trek to do it. They're just phaser fodder anyway.
A Space program? that would be better and more profitable then boosting welfare, at least a space program will advance us in technology. we just need to stop giving the technology to the Chinese!!!!
@Times...I think the petition site is awesome!! The public being able to get a White House response is cool not stupid. Maybe you're one of the people that hates an entire political party (roughly half the population) if that's your problem get over it and be sure to vote for your candidate next election... Have a great night and may the Schwartz be with you.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
That part of the article is funny right there.
Classic MSNBC disinformation at its finest with more fluff stories about their God President
Do we ever hear about Bengazigate or taxes being hiked on all Americans?, of course not no
Lets talk about funneh Death Star joke petitions and what beer the prez is brewing
All this shows is how disconnected this administration is from the struggles and suffering the people are going through. To make a site implying they are listening to the concerns of the American people and then use it as a personal facebook wall joke factory is despicable
It was all pretty humorous. It was good to read some light hearted articles for once.
But you do have to remember, all the gunaphobes out there scared of a little gun are not going to vote for us putting money into a "gun" capable of destroying a planet!!
Oh come on !!!! A death star to roast our enemies would sway the votes our way, that is until someone pulled a jihad on earth and only $850 gazillion dollars too get started "what a deal" and you could then mass produce them and sell them "or lease them" to crazy world dominating mad men for a tidy profit after they crush the Old Republic, mine the guts out of every planet they pass and then blow the planet up after their done....
You know its the American thing to do....
We do not need a gun to destroy the Planet we got Buttons lots of them. Nuke's away.
only a republican could be so bold, as to want a death star. Emperor Cheney must have been behind this , for sure. Anakin Bushwalker must be close behind. And what of Karl the HUT. he and his gluttonous ways. And when republicans get their death star you will be saying. so this is how democracy ends, with thunderous applause.
Regarding the Gunaphobes comment, Frankly it's those of you who are so Freak'd that somehow you may lose your Phallicsymbol security blankey. That you'll jumpon any 'bandwagon' to scream 'Their not taking my gun, of course if you were a REAL man you wouldn't need a gun.
awww....i was so wanting a death star...come on pretty please...just one little death star...
You underestimate the power of the dark side. If you will not fight then you will meet your destiny. Don't make me destroy you. You don't know the power of the dark side. Asteroids do not concern me Admiral. I want that ship,not excuses. It is pointless to resist. I find your lack of faith disturbing. Give yourself to the dark side. It's the only way you can save your friends. I want that ship.
Obama has made it very clear that he plans to use the NASA budget for more free stuff for minorities, buying votes.
Now with Darth Brennan and the Imperial probe droids (drones) we we will conquer! I am not sure if Obama can be Emperor Palpatine. Can he wield the Dark Side? Is he a true Dark Lord of the Sith?
To all of you pathetic imbeciles that turned this good-natured joke into a political discussion, I must say that you assume too much. Your ridiculous assumptions about what other people are thinking almost make me laugh, but then when I really think about how many of you believe this way, it makes me cry. I can't imagine the extreme boredom you all must feel about being omniscient and being right all the time.
To the GOP: May the schwartz be with you!
You amuse me Grammpah, i can garuntee i am 10x the man you are, and your an idiot to think that carrying a gun has anything to do with manhood. Honor, respect (for those who deserve it), being a good father and husband.. all make a good man.. not whether or not one carries a gun.
I carry a spare tire in my car trunk in case i need it... does that make me less of a man too?
I can garuntee i have seen more of this world, done more for this country, and have been more of a man in my life then a fool like you could even fathom or will ever come close to.
This is just silly. I mean I love Star Wars, too, but come on. I can't imagine the petition was actually serious. The best part about it was in the response they said "the United States already has access to a space station as well as a laser-wielding space robot." I also loved how they brought up the deficit and the flaw that can be exploited from a one man star ship. That's an absolutely outstanding way to respond to what is an amusing but by all means silly and unrealistic request that almost has to be as joke in it's own right. I love the sense of humor they used to reject it.
"bob-2476682
I signed that petition."
Why?
The petition was clearly a joke, answered with more jokes (sorry, but some of these comments indicate people are actually wondering about that), but yeah, I suspect the original petition was probably written up by liberals poking fun at conservatives, which might be why some right-wingers are so sore about it... those who got the joke, anyway.
How about a challenge from the White House to unite the country? Like JFK's "We'll go to the moon before the decade is out..."? Obama sees JFK as his peer in leadership stature, maybe he should take a hint from JFK and find things to unite the country to work together to improve our economy and reduce the planned dependence on a debt ridden federal government.
Yes, because the $10 billion per year we have spent on NASA gas given us teflon-coated fibreglass shingles, the Dustbuster, and Tempur-Pedic mattresses.
Well Justin, some of us think we know everything and some of us are students for life.
Guess who the thinking folks are.
LOL!! Frickin morons. Thanks for sucking up the time our government needs to address real issues.
A....Death....Star *eyetwitch*
The most egregious "joke" in this stupid little bit of NBC fluff is the Obama appointee, Paul Shawcross, from the White House Office of Management and Budget saying, "We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it".
Oh, wait! That's not a joke. It's just another Obama LIE!!
jjgrats
Awesome? It's nothing more than a joke as this proves beyond any doubt. What would be awesome is getting the WH to respond to any serious inquires. For most of 8 years we bitched about the lack of transparency in the Bush administration and now we have one that's, somehow, even worse. The most disappointing aspect is that most of the people who bitched about Bush's secrecy are suddenly silent even though the problem is worse than EVER before.
So what if we didn't get the health-care debate on C-Span as promised, who cares that legislation isn't online as promised, who needs to see the visitor logs at the WH?... After all, we got the recipe for the Presidents favorite beer so what's there to complain about right??
@denver bill 2
Remind me again what we got from the 1 trillion dollars we spent on welfare programs last year??
Most of us get that this was a big joke, there may however be a group that is as sarcasm challenged as Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory and the TP of the GOP... and that may be an Alien race within 30 light years of earth. We have been broadcasting plans for the Death Star since Star Wars IV went into syndication decades ago, and now plans for the Death Star were seriously considered and rejected by this administration. Now if you were part of an alien race without a sense of humor, you might feel that a preemptive strike upon the earth to be a serious option. That said, the program to watch for planet busting asteroids should be stepped up to include solar system invasion fleets. Remember the old WWII adage, "loose lips sink ships!"
We're already on a "Life Star".
The administration's response was clever and correct; I thought they used the opportunity well to appeal for STEM support and drum up additional support for the US space program. However; I hope that one for development of a nuclear thermal rocket engine receives serious consideration.
And just for the record; this petition made as much or more sense than a lot of the ones courtesy of the wing-nut portion of the GOP. Those are truly lost in space.
A working economy.
Yes we do. Incessantly.
Either way, I don't see why you expect Alan to be covering Benghazi or taxes being hiked. He writes a science column.
"Obama will pay for his lack of vision" Emperor Palpatine. I have to confess as a Star Wars fan from the old days, when it first came out, I could not help but want to vote and cheer for it's construction. If America choose to build this "Death Star" "We could be the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it." "Approach the CIA, we must. Hmmm"
Seriously, we are no where near being able to build such a device because only rising nations come up with new inventions and put the country and it's people first over money matters. As long as we are small minded people with only money as the sole focus of our existence we will never see the nation and it's needs in wholes.
"Aim it at Congress, we will!" - 91% of US citizens
Needle has the right idea. TURN THE MOON INTO OUR DEATHSTAR! It's there. It's available. We've already claimed it. Just mount a few giant laser transmitters on it and a focusing array and THEN let Iran start acting up. ZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAPP! Bwahahahahaha.
Needle, you're a genius!
Then, once we've got our prototype up and operational and the world is at our mercy, we can bankrupt the OTHER countries to make a MOBILE, interplanetary version. Forget Mars, Titan, all the other life-less rocks out there. With our own DEATH STAR we can conquer the UNIVERSE.
Bwahhahahahahaha.
And we'll owe it all to Needle. Thanks.
Of course, following Needle's suggestions, we'll call it the LIFE STAR! Bwahahahahah, Brilliant, just brilliant and we owe it all to you Needle. You're a freakin' genius.
850 quadrillion! That's a lotta quatloos!
Just need to print a few of those trillion dollar coins
Don't worry with the Republicans in office your lucky to get death star more like a 1982 ford pinto with a pocket lazer tape on it.
If they can mint one then whats to stop them from printing/ minting thousands, I only hope they don't hire the federal reserve to make them, that would cost two trillion for every one trillion coin.
@40 empty heads ? must you insult the Democrats so much, we know they are out of touch but you make them look absolutely stupid, can you be a little kinder to them? after all they are living creatures with feelings, aren't they?
D Buck
Ha.Ha
$850,000,000,000,000,000 = Blowbama's planned entitlement increases forward to 2016.
That's funny, first you call him a socialist as the DOW climbs to new record highs. Then you worry about "entitlements" as corporations get a free ride. You call him fascist while the Banks pay back the poans. then you complain about china who gained it's footing from Nixon and Reagan. waa waa waa. all you can do is insult people with the same old word twisting childishness as your republican think tanks. Reality check= republicans lost cause they are out of touch. obama is fixing the Bush mess even though you try to block it. your solution? oh yeah, you don't have one.
First you try to take grandma's SS check, Then you want more tax breaks for companies who sent jobs to china via the "deregulation" your party set up and told us would work so well. Every single thing that republicans deregulated now costs us more. telephone, electricity, hospitals etc. and all you pompous behinds can come up with is "blowbama" oh wait, where you saying you wanted to? now i'm confused.
george
I had an outspoken conservative friend of mine tell me the other day that "all these government regulations are killing businesses." I said, "Like what?". He replied, " Oh, you know, minimum wage, overtime rules, and all kinds of taxes. It's no wonder so many companies go overseas." So, I asked him, " Would you do the job you do now for a tenth of the pay, no benefits, and no job security?" He said, " Of course not! I'm an American!" I turned and walked away. The conversation was clearly over.
Justin B-3020259
They are and anyone who doubts it has their head up their backside. Fed regulations aside, local and state regs do the most damage to small businesses and anyone who actually owns a business could give you plenty of examples. Why don't you go ask some of them your question instead of someone you knew didn't have a clue? Are you afraid you'd get an answer you didn't want to hear???
The Obamacare Bill "considered" by the Dems was a whopping 2,400+ pages long. The Obamacare Law, as passed, is 906 pages long and contains 20 new taxes.
The problem is that the Law passed was just an outline that left the implementation up to the "discretion" of bureaucrats. So far, the 906 page Law has resulted in over 13,000 pages of new regulations.
How do you think that will affect the cost of healthcare?
I can not believe it,a death star,there is a more serious problem than that,but most people mentaly wet themselves when mentioned,hang on people,the aliens here on earth and the moon,the cia,nsa has a program of disinformation and debunking and pulling hoaxes to fool the american people there is mountains of evidents,what more do you want,for them to land on the white house lawn,oh yea we went from horse and buggy to the moon it what under sixty years,hundreds of top cia,astronauts,faa,military,ecthave came forward,unidentified object traveling thousands of miles an hour in american airspace,oh yea,swamp gas,and we do not care,rrriigghhtt..
I'm still rooting for the "Enterprise"... colonization/terraforming of Mars... moon colony... space based building platform and a "new" form of interstellar travel...... mmmmm that about covers it.
Loved the response and it may actually have been The Petition Response They Were Looking For.
We need a good laugh, that helped.
Fun sponges.....
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
.
LOL!!........This was the funniest thing I have ever heard from our politicians.
Ok, ok so no Death Star damnit!....
Can we at least get a couple of Star Destroyers please?
They are alot smaller....
Or maybe a Millennium Falcon and some X-Wing fighters.
I would settle for being able to shoot lightening out of my fingers. Incredibly handy when trying to jump-start the kidlets in the morning.
Ooo...ooo...ooo. Disaperation. I know it's an entirely different saga, but wouldn't you just love to disaperate to work and back? Talk about green energy.
millennium falcon an x-wing fighters huh,well i think that be neat as well but evan if we built a stardestroyer,an putting the cost on account(on account evan i cant count that high) about all we might afford is a ford falcon and some ex-pilots?lol.they say space is quiet,im for keepin it so if possible.but love the pictures.
How about a cantina with a lot of strange people in it?
Oh wait, I see that in NYC night clubs every weekend!
Cris would'nt it be fun through to get drunk with Jar Jar binks
Chris, why not just go to any bar in Hollywood....
We've got the death sentence in twelve systems.
I'll be careful.
You'll be dead!!
lola3, I would like to be able to use Force lightning on many MSN and Yahoo posters. The left, right, middle, and fringe all irritate me to no end.
You got that right truthteller. I went back and read some of the new comments. GET A JOKE PEOPLE.
The petition was not serious in the first place. And the Pres didn't respond, it was the guy in the Space division of the White House Office of Management and Budget. They probably spent 20 minutes on a response, had a laugh and moved on.
Now...if anyone is interested, you can go to Disneyland and participate in the Jedi Training Academy where Mace Windu will give you some pointers and you have a lightsaber battle with Darth Vader and...no kidding...Darth Maul. It's cool as hell.
Hey Itsabout, That's $2 Billion PER B-2 bomber. The one that crashed on Guam was enough to fund public schools for at least a year...
The cool part is they look like Darth Vader's command ship. (Well, same paint scheme...) Peace through superior firepower, I always say!
Maybe they should just build Moonbase Alpha instead! It isn't Star Wars, but it IS more practical than the Death Star... I'd like to see Klingon battle cruisers, but...
If you wanted a death star you should have supported Newt.
Oh ok your not wasting money now? OK.
But, but, that $850,000,000,000,000,000 space station would create 20 million jobs, and allow for us to occupy the space realm before the terrorist instigators.
Nah, the terrorist instigators might be more inclined to create Allahforge Citadel in the bowels of Earth herself - I mean, hell (no pun intended), they're already dead set on sending themselves to Hell anyways.
Besides, if we're gonna get serious about this, perhaps a good benchmark for us would be floating colonies in the sky, AKA Cloud City or something (that'd be a venue I'd live in). If we can build and maintain those, a Death Star might not be impossible for us. I mean, what with the altitude you'd need for a project of that nature, not to mention you could simply crash it on top of any terrorist nation you'd wanna obliterate....
Sorry - but the first $250,000,000,000,000,000,000 would be spent by NASA on toilet seat covers that do not float away in space...
Imagine the automatic soap dispensing issue...
Actually, a space station that large would have its own gravitational pull. One would need to make sure it is strong enough which is quite possible.
kennet
Strong enough? Quite possible? Exactly what is your definition of "strong enough"? You do realize for it to have gravity equal to the Earth it's mass would need to be equal to the Earths also right?
Actually, they perfected the gravity/anti-gravity fields some time ago. They just need to be able to efficiently generate the energy needed to power them.
Heck, as far back as the 1960's James Kirk was walking around on a ship, in space, with no issues.
If only he could get the doors to open properly.
it figures the bisexual muslim carpet bagger wearing the red silk mao hat in the oval office would cave on this. it was Regans star wars program that scared the heck out of the russians be it true or be it false at least let china iran and the rest of our enemies think we have one in the works. keep those less then zero stool samples wondering.
Are you for real? Build the Death Star just to scare the Chinese and Iranians? Let's build two of them.
adolf is either a rather less than stellar satirist or a nut. I'll go for the satirist.
Ever thought of not aspiring to be a miserable troll?
Yes and in the long term devastated the economy.
jfix,jamie r,yakfitguy and jjrats you poor miss guided stool samples and lost liberals i presume i stated regans star war program it to was smoke and mirrors but the russians thought he was for real and that too was another program that was financialy not feasible but it had the russians shaking in there boots and one of the reasons they caved in on the joke called the cold war. but your president the bisexual muslim in the red silk turbin wants to hold hands and make kisseeee kisseee with our enemies while they gain military strenght to make it harder for our great military to exterminate them to protect the mother land. i really don't know anymore if the islamic extremist, russians or chiness are a worst enemy or not or is it the poor miss guided Godless liberal to the motherland.
What does it matter? The illegal immigrants are using the 14th amendment to take over the country anyway. And they seem to be doing a bang-up job of it. Check the census.
Don't feed the trolls people! ;-)
"Don't feed the trolls people! ;-)" Come on! They ARE good for a laugh, every now and then.... Just look at Romney! BWAHAHAHA!!
Adolph, you know people just might take you seriously if you'd present your comments tactfully and without the immature and irrational descriptions of our current President. What's really interesting is that you believe the Star Wars program that President Reagan champaigned was the reason Russia "caved" and were "shaking in their boots". I'm sure you believe it led to the fall of Communism in the old Soviet Union.
If you had any sense of what was going on in all those years leading up to the fall of the Soviet Union, you would have realized that eventually the Soviet Union would break up, with or without the threat of Star Wars. The Russians actually tried to keep up with what we were doing and were not able to do so. They didn't have the resources we had. And if you believe that a Death Star would be a deterrent, think again. First, a Death Star would be overkill for any of our enemies here on Earth. Not only would we destroy them, we'd destroy ourselves. How would that benefit us? Second, you're assuming it would be a deterrent but if that were true, then our nuclear buildup would have also been a deterrent. It may have deterred some countries but not all. Russia, Pakistan, North Korea all now have nuclear capabilities and Iran is attempting to get it.
You obviously don't think things completely through before posting, do you? I'm not surprised, most people don't.
A.H: YOU, sir or madam, are a dip@!$%# of the highest order. In fact, to that first poster who decided to make this article political, YOU are an even BIGGER dip@!$%#. The Death Star petition was started as a glib response to the Secession Petitions, which had an equal chance of being taken seriously.
AlvSmit
And you're calling other people dip@!$%#s? This had NOTHING to do with the secession petitions. There are literately thousands of equally worthless petitions brought about by this joke of a program.
A welfare star they would be all over it...
A President who knows his way around????????????? Are you sick or insane ,That AS$$$$$ don't where Washington DC are locate you hipocritic dome,Auch ,Auch ,What a stupid and arrogant you ARE..........................
Hmmm and you obviously don't know your way around an English book.
jjgrats and where does Hmmm come into the English books?
Just saying I think we'z be speaking American
@joeyfromcali: Do you know what an onomatopoetic expression is?
I'd rather my taxes pay for a death star than for every deadbeat's health insurance.
Thanks for your input Lord Vader.
So instead of one big death star lot's of little deaths? Nice.
Maybe you should take care of the Clingons around Uranus with your heath care you hard worker you.
NASA has been grounded, so much for using the international space station.
speaking of which , isnt that the soviet space station, i think the soviets would frown on the idea of using the space station to attack them or even defending an attack from the soviets.
I know that the ISS doesn't get much press but no, it is not a soviet space station. That was the MIR and it was abandoned and crashed into the Pacific so that Russian resources could be focused on the core of the ISS. Two or three modules of the ISS are Russian, the bulk of the science labs are American, Japan built at least one, Canada built one or more robot arms that were used in the shuttle and the ISS I believe. Now private industry is getting into the act in the United States by working on launch vehicles because since the Shuttle retired the only way to get Astronauts and Cosmonauts to it is on 4 or 5 decade old Russian revamped ballistic missiles... But to the point of this article, this Commie Pinko Liberal loves dry humor and the White House did not disappoint.
Ya gotta love the fact that there is a NASA group that handles the private industry liaisons with companies like SpaceX, and it's actually called "Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office" with the abbreviation "C3PO".
Sorry, one Death Star is not going to get it. You're going to need at least three to ensure 100% coverage 100% of the time... with impenetrable force shields.
Just think how much money we could save. We wouldn't need the size Defense Department we have today. No need for an Air force, Army, Navy.... Just Death Star personnel. A whole new exciting career! With laser accuracy the Death Star could zap a gnat off a camel's ass from miles in space. No need for drones.
Korea!? what is that you are sending in space? ZAP! China, what the heck!!? ZAP!! Iran, is that what I think it is!!? ZAP!! Taliban!? Please... ZAP!!
Yep, it's a great idea!
Nah. I'd go for a couple of Cloud City Bespins in the general airspace - allows those nutjobs with their heads in the clouds to go somewhere they can't bother us.
Any thing that might upset the Communist or the Islamic terrorist Obama would never do, now something to harrass get rid of or destroy Christians in America he is all for that
Did your mother have any children that lived?
Sounds great to me!!
May the Force be with you!
And also With you (oh wait is that my inner repressed Catholicism) Dam I think so gotta work on that.
haha, Joey, I thought I was the only one who did that.
Or as Mel Brooks would say: May the Farce be with you!
The only death star that will or has hit the USA is already in DC. His name is Dark Vader, the gun snatcher.
You should really learn how to move on with your life Randall. I've been hearing the same idiotic calls about "our guns being taken away from us" for decades. Then again, perhaps YOUR guns should be taken away from a nutcase like yourself. Those of us who are law abiding citizens and RESPONSIBLE gun owners have absolutely nothing to worry about, from our current President or any future President. I still get amazed at how many lemmings there are concerning gun rights and worrying about losing their guns. Just how many other idiotic beliefs have you fallen for?
I believe I'll have a drink.
You are an idiot. Did you get a certificate stating something to that effect? If you are an example of a Christian, I hope he gets the task done as soon as possible.
Thanks, and i am a Christian, and pro gun, and pro life. Thank you and that is why i don't like Dark Vader the gun snatcher.
Looks like the only thing that's been snatched from you is a decent education.
And a brain to put it in.
Just make a $850,000,000,000,000,000 platinum coin.
I find this extremely funny. Death Star... bahwahahwah....
"Use the forse!"
Darth Vader won't like this!
How about some light sabers at least.That would make for some fun news stories.
Next thing we know we will hear Hillary Clinton say " John (Boner) I am your father!!