The crew of the STS-114 shuttle mission paid a visit to the White House Wednesday, getting their picture taken with President Bush in the Oval Office. Don’t worry if you didn’t hear about it: NASA didn’t publicize the event in advance, issuing a brief press release late yesterday after the event. Likewise, the only evidence on the White House web site of the visit is a single photo of the crew with the president and administrator Mike Griffin, who is not even acknowledged in the photo caption. (The same photo, with a more detailed caption, is also on NASA’s web site.) There’s no report of what, if anything, the president said to the astronauts or Griffin.
This is not the first time the administration and/or NASA has played down a White House visit: in July 2004 the crew of Apollo 11 visited the White House to mark the 35th anniversary of their historic mission, but made no public appearances other than participating in an online chat. This, despite concerns at the time about Congressional and public acceptance of the Vision for Space Exploration.
