It is not the search for life, or habitable planets orbiting nearby stars, the Moon or Mars...but...according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden(in a recent interview with Al Jazeera on Obama's one year anniversary of his(Obama's) "Cairo speech) its to: "Improve relations with the Muslim world".
I thought this great country of ours had a State Department, and a Secretary of State by the name of Hillary Clinton who's responsibility it is to improve or be concerned about international relations and diplomacy? Last year Bolden admitted NASA would become more concerned about "Earth sciences"...ie...environmental activism. So, now we can add to that--pandering to backwardly religious and otherwise hostile Earthly nations and how we can make them feel better about themselves?
Its no wonder the greatest and most powerful nation on this planet is being left with no self sufficent method of getting humans into orbit. Its no wonder we have scrapped plans to get humans to the Moon and Mars. As a nation we seem to be able to spend trillions on social programs, unions, and curruption, but an extra billion for NASA is out of the question...in fact...the $6 billion spent on the Constellation program...forget it.
I'm sorry to report that we no longer have a space agency and a new one will have to be created from scratch under a new president in 2012(assuming the voters have the wisdom to elect a real leader).
Text:
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening ties with the Muslim world was amoung the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
"When I became the NASA administrator--or before I became the NASA administrator--he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science...and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview.
The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the one-year annivesary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo--in his interview with Al Jazeera, he described space travel as an international collaboration of which Muslim national must be a part.
"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said. He held up the International Space Station as a model, praising the contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.
However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic mission--in a distinctly non-diplomatic role.
"Not at all. Its not a diplomatic anything," he said.
He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without international help.
Bolden has faced criticism this year for overseeing the concellation of the agency's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon. Stressing the importance of international cooperation in future missions, Bolden told Al Jazeera that the moon, Mars and asteroids are still planned destinations for NASA.
PS: I did'nt know the Chinese were involved in the International Space Station? Happy 234th America!
I thought this great country of ours had a State Department, and a Secretary of State by the name of Hillary Clinton who's responsibility it is to improve or be concerned about international relations and diplomacy? Last year Bolden admitted NASA would become more concerned about "Earth sciences"...ie...environmental activism. So, now we can add to that--pandering to backwardly religious and otherwise hostile Earthly nations and how we can make them feel better about themselves?
Its no wonder the greatest and most powerful nation on this planet is being left with no self sufficent method of getting humans into orbit. Its no wonder we have scrapped plans to get humans to the Moon and Mars. As a nation we seem to be able to spend trillions on social programs, unions, and curruption, but an extra billion for NASA is out of the question...in fact...the $6 billion spent on the Constellation program...forget it.
I'm sorry to report that we no longer have a space agency and a new one will have to be created from scratch under a new president in 2012(assuming the voters have the wisdom to elect a real leader).
Text:
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening ties with the Muslim world was amoung the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
"When I became the NASA administrator--or before I became the NASA administrator--he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science...and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview.
The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the one-year annivesary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo--in his interview with Al Jazeera, he described space travel as an international collaboration of which Muslim national must be a part.
"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said. He held up the International Space Station as a model, praising the contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.
However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic mission--in a distinctly non-diplomatic role.
"Not at all. Its not a diplomatic anything," he said.
He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without international help.
Bolden has faced criticism this year for overseeing the concellation of the agency's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon. Stressing the importance of international cooperation in future missions, Bolden told Al Jazeera that the moon, Mars and asteroids are still planned destinations for NASA.
PS: I did'nt know the Chinese were involved in the International Space Station? Happy 234th America!
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