Friday, September 23, 2011

Obama’s NASA: Leading From Behind

During the early days of Obama's first campaign, careful reading of the policy statements on his web site indicated that he originally intended to gut and remake NASA as little more than an extension of the EPA and the Dept. of Education. This explains why his appointee Charles Bolden made such maddening statements about concentrating NASA's efforts on Earth monitoring and Muslim outreach. This National Review article is a scathing summary of the complete mess that is Obama's NASA.
In January 2010, Bolden labeled NASA an “Earth improvement agency” and said it would essentially scrap manned space exploration and concentrate on “researching and monitoring climate change.” This redefined mission came with additional funding. NASA was going to spend more, and do less.

Then in July 2010, Administrator Bolden announced NASA’s mission as threefold: (1) “re-inspire children”; (2) “expand our international relationships”; and “foremost” (3) “reach out to the Muslim world.” He condescendingly explained that Muslim outreach would help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.

In this same interview, Bolden “inspired children” by declaring the United States could never reach beyond low-earth orbit again, as it did alone from 1968–1971, without international help, saying: “We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can’t do it, China can’t do it — no single nation is going to go to a place like Mars alone.

There is more. Much more. Read the whole article!

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