That’s the suggestion made in a UPI article by Frank Sietzen published late Monday. He notes that the Apollo 11 crew is scheduled to meet with President Bush on July 21—one day after the 35th anniversary of the historic lunar landing—and that this private meeting might be followed by some kind of public statement by the President on space policy. “Sources close to some of the astronauts hinted that a public statement urging support for the president’s new moon-Mars space plan might follow the meeting, but there has been no official confirmation of that prospect,” Sietzen writes. In an interview on The Space Show last night, Sietzen made similar comments. If the President is looking for a hook to attract attention to a space policy statement, the Apollo 11 anniversary is probably as good as any in the near future, although no guarantee to attract that much media attention.
“The Apollo 11 crew and other veterans of NASA’s moon missions will be presented with plaques bearing samples of lunar material at a ceremony at the National Air and Space museum next Tuesday, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the first landing on the moon.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5431472/
More on the Anniversary and of moon rock ownership. http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-071404a.html
Previous efforts in 2000 had failed on the Apollo Exploration Award act much like all things relating to space these days.
Buzz Aldrin pointed the timing of this anniversary out to the Aldridge Commission, I seem to remember.
It would be nice if Bush and Kerry made the announcement together to show solidarity in a common vision for space exploration. Well one can dream…
About time the Administration, or anyone it the oligarchy recognized Neil, Buzz, and Mike as the modern day heroes they have been for thirty five years to those in the know about space. Now if only the chance to give a piece of the moon to the surviving Apollo 7 to 17 crews came to pass, that would be the beginnings of real justice and recognition of the reality of space history.
Finally, space advocates should realize that with the exception of the “space” reporters, conventional media have lied and distorted the truth about space for three decades plus. We can not depend on them to tell the truth about what the real potential of space development and settlement is, so we must do it ourselves, and speak with a united voice for common goals which the recent effort to have a “Space Blitz” are but a beginning. We must keep up the pressure, and find ways to motivate the people who print their lies as facts like the VSC costing way more than it will in fact, and pressure them to retract their fiction and tell the truth. Or we must bypass conventional media, and get the truth outr ourselves. Either way, we must do something different from what we have dome to sell the meme of space to the public, or continue with the insane repetitions of the past that have not worked to change hearts and minds, and never will.
Neil Armstrong, in contrast to the statements of Former Astronaut and Senator John Glenn (D-OH), has already voiced his support for the Bush space plan:
http://www.space.com/news/armstrong_nasa_040311.html
You can find the article about John Glenn’s opposition to Bush’s space plan here:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/04/moon.mars.commission.reut/
Every Democratic staffer I spoke to on Monday and Tuesday agreed that spending $16 billion per year to just go in circles (ISS/STS) was stupid. Going beyond LEO was the only worthy goal for an American space program. And every Democratic staffer I spoke to understood that letting the GOP dominate the moral high ground on space policy was a bad idea, politically.
Even folks who started out talking about “balancing space and social needs” would come around and agree the GOP could not be allowed a hegemony on the vision of Americans leading humanity beyond LEO. Everyone agreed that the goal of America leaving LEO was essential.
The SEA alliance is based on the idea that we will certainly argue about how long to stay on the Moon before “on to Mars” and other details but doing something (anything!) beyond LEO is more important than organizing yet another circled-up firing squad.
Even Robert Zubrin rallied his legions of “HEAP – NO – TIZED” followers to argue Moon first to the US Congress, but of course as a steppingstone before “On to Mars!” I am told that this last occurrence was a truly remarkable event.
= = =
Frankly, since the orbiter is broken beyond long term repair, it is either “Moon, Mars or beyond” or nothing and no Democrat could possibly survive gutting NASA.
PS: It is not and cannot be the “Bush plan” – – it is America’s plan.
Maybe the democrats will support a loftier goal for Human spaceflight, geosynchronous orbit or Earth-Moon L1.
Article from the Floridatoday space pages.
T-plus 35 years, Apollo 11 team looks back
Proud workers gather at KSC to mark moon mission’s launch
http://www.flatoday.com/news/space/stories/2004b/spacestoryN0716APOLLO.htm