UK & World News
- 12 January 2013, 7:37
Death Star Proposal Rejected By White House
The White House has rejected a petition signed by thousands of people calling for a Death Star to be built.
Started by a John D, from Colorado, the petition demanded that work should begin on the project within the next four years.
He claimed having a moon-sized space station and inter-stellar weapon from the Star Wars film series would strengthen national security and create jobs.
But Paul Shawcross, chief of the White House's Office of Management and Budget's Science and Space Branch, has replied to the 35,000 signatories saying: "The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defence, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon."
He explained in the letter, titled 'This Isn't The Petition Response You're Looking For', that the estimated cost of constructing a Death Star would be over $850,000,000,000,000,000 ($850 quadrillion).
"We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it."
US officials are forced to respond if a petition on the 'We The People' site gets more than 25,000 signatures - this one received over 34,000.
Mr Shawcross wrote that the White House "does not support blowing up planets" but highlighted that there is "something already floating in the sky".
"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."
And he showed himself to be something of a Star Wars fan, signing off the letter with the line: "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:
Hello, regular commenting on Orange News and Sport pages closes on Thursday 30 May 2013. We will continue to provide a commenting facility on major news and sport events on orangeworld.co.uk. Contact us via http://oran.ge/OWfeedback if you have any further questions. Thanks.
what do you think?
Debra Wiseman
Haha Americans.
Adj Jackson
Just double checked the small print and According to the 2nd Amendment they can have one each plus they will train janitors to use them to protect schools!!!!
Adrian Wagstaff
How do we really know, the entire space industry is not all fake and simply a bunch of warehouses used to pretend people are going into outer space in order to receive billions of dollars like the World's biggest, secret gang of gangsters? It is common knowledge quite a lot of people have mysteriously died engaged in such business practises. Not one astronaut has slipped or tripped or smashed their visor into a space craft? Not one space suit, costing millions of dollars has malfunctioned catastrophically? Nobody is going to give someone a space suit costing millions of dollars so they can float around in space. There are over ONE HUNDRED suba diving DEATHS in America per year, according to my brief checking of statistics. Yet, no astronaut deaths in space? Totally and utterly IMPOSSIBLE.
Tricky One
Nonsense
Adrian Wagstaff
I would go so far as to say, Area 51 and such places are merely, scientific laboratories intended to develop products such as super glues and plastic repair chemicals in order to further finance such fictiscious extravaganzas. It would seem most divers can last for forty-five minutes on one tank of air. Astronauts are supposed to be doing space walks for several hours. None of their oxygen tanks have ever blown up? Apart from on Apollo 13? Obviously, finding any sensible statistics online, is going to take about a year, whilst ignoring strangely-coloured pages.
Adj Jackson
9:08am on 12/1/2013
Only in America!!!!!!!!!!