D
dtich
Guest
i've been so excited by the new enthusiasm at nasa,<br />starting really with the incredibly successful mars<br />rover missions, and continuing through the triumphant<br />return to flight after the safety revamp of the<br />shuttles. with the space station coming together<br />piece by piece, hubble continuing to amaze us from the<br />leading edge of cosmological exploration, and the<br />several long-range science missions like cassini<br />proving nothing less than awesome at times, all in all<br />it is a great time for nasa and its collegiate<br />institutions around the country and the world. <br /><br />one thing, however, has been dampening my fire<br />recently, and that is the ubiquitous mention of the<br />presidential mandate, based on his speech last year,<br />to return to manned exploration of the solar system,<br />starting with the moon and moving thereafter to mars. <br />while this dictum should excite me, and for sure the<br />fundamental promise of it does, i am dishearteartened<br />and somewhat naseated by the fact that our supreme<br />loser of a president is going to go down in history<br />with, among several much less prestigious<br />accomplishments to his credit, the distinction of<br />having spurred the revitalizing of our manned-space<br />program. i am so loathe to allow him this, i mean,<br />he's no jack kennedy after all... not by a long, long<br />shot. and to imagine his name after jfk's in the<br />honor roll of the space administration is infuriating.<br /> <br />i do grant the president one thing, and that is that i<br />believe his appointment of the new head of nasa,<br />michael griffin, was a fantastic move. from all i<br />have seen and read so far, he is an admirably smart<br />and able leader with seemingly boundless enthusiasm<br />for nasa and our space program. he is quite<br />impressive to me and i feel nasa is indeed in good<br />hands in that regard. frankly, i can't believe the<br />president actually had anything to do with appointing<</safety_wrapper>