The successful landing this morning of the space shuttle Atlantis prompted a congratulatory press release from Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The first sentence of his statement: “Once again the American space program has forged new heights in space exploration through its commitment to diligence, innovation, and entrepreneurship.” Diligence? Most definitely, to assure the success of the shuttle mission. Innovation? Yeah, you can make a case for that, at least for some aspects of the mission. Entrepreneurship? Um, not so much.
Interestingly, Hastert used similar language in a July 2006 press release after the end of the STS-121 shuttle mission: “The American entrepreneurial spirit of innovation is alive and well. Our space program taps into that spirit to attract the best and brightest minds to explore the last frontier.”
