Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta apparently thinks that President Bush doesn’t get enough credit for promoting commercial spaceflight. Mineta, speaking at the COMSTAC meeting yesterday, said, “I admit that I am a bit surprised about how little is known about how the Bush Administration is enabling commercial space.” As examples, he pointed to the Vision for Space Exploration, the commercial space recommendations contained in the Aldridge Commission report, and the “clear and important role for commercial human spaceflight” in national space policy.
Compare Secretary Mineta’s comments with those made last week by Congressman Bart Gordon, who said that “I don’t think President Bush is a space guy when it comes down to it.” Gordon reached that conclusion, SPACE.com reported, in part because of Bush’s “apparent lack of interest in space issues while he was governor of Texas.” Of course, there aren’t many opportunities for state governors to speak out on space issues…
Gordon’s statement was particularly outrageous and partisan when one considers Bill Clinton’s horrible space record.
> “the commercial space recommendations contained in the Aldridge Commission report,”
A report that was almost immediately ignored by both of the Whitehouses appointments for NASA Administrator. From my outside view it seems as though the Whitehouse flushed the Aldridge Commissions report and has outsourced the entire process of defining the VSE to whoever happens to be Administrator.
I still support the VSE, just not the particular spin on it that NASA has come up with. I would be much happier if the Whitehouse came back to the VSE and clarrified its views (not NASAs) on some of the non-hardware specific bits and let it be known that the Vision still stands as a committment across agencies and that NASA is just one part of the “master plan”.
But given the other political nightmares going on in the Whitehouse right now I don’t see this getting much of the President’s attention. I’ll say it again, if we get a Democrat in the Whitehouse and people are still bad mouthing the ESAS, expect the entire Vision to be tossed out as part of an anti-Bush house cleaning. If that happens lord knows what we’d get as a replacement. Maybe a space program run by the UN?
Bush, as Governor of Texas, obviously had a much larger opportunity to spek out on space issues than, say, the governor of Maine. Truth is, Bush did not even visit the Johnson Space Center during the six years he was Governor.
Bush, as Governor of Texas, obviously had a much larger opportunity to spek out on space issues than, say, the governor of Maine. Truth is, Bush did not even visit the Johnson Space Center during the six years he was Governor.