Like presidential candidates, sometimes even space advocates get unsolicited, presumably undesired endorsements from people out on the fringes. Take Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who told the The Sunday Telegraph that “he intends to lobby Barack Obama and John McCain” for “sufficient” NASA funding so that the agency can carry out the Vision for Space Exploration. Otherwise, he said, “we’re going to have to live in a secondary position in human space flight for the rest of the century.” (Rest of the century? Really? That’s an awfully long time.)
Besides being concerned about ceding the lead in human spaceflight to China and/or Russia, he’s also critical of design decisions regarding Orion that will have it splashdown in the ocean rather than come down on land: “In particular, it will not be suitable for short flights into low orbits, of a kind that could be used for space tourism – potentially a valuable new source of revenue for Nasa,” the Telegraph article claims. (Nevermind that it seems highly unlikely that NASA would or should get involved in space tourism.)
Aldrin tells the British newspaper that he “is joining forces with other space campaigners to give his unvarnished views to the presidential candidates.” The article doesn’t indicate with whom Aldrin is working with, but he does have an endorsement… from Lyndon LaRouche. “Lyndon LaRouche today gave his full endorsement to Aldrin’s statement” published in the Telegraph, according to a statement in LaRouche’s Executive Intelligence Review. That’s sure to help…
With friends like these…
I’m rather surprised that Lyndon is still alive. Certainly LaRouche has been in favor of things dear to the hearts of many space activists, such as Mars colonies and fusion power, and yet did not manage to discredit either one. On the other hand, I once saw a tape of him raving about the “psycho sexual gratification” to be found in a certain now defunct space group. Mind if such a thing existed, I never noticed.
Really, this is no different then Kim Jong-il’s endorsement of Obama and about the same news value, zero on a scale of 1 to 10.
http://freekorea.us/2008/06/22/obama-gets-another-unwanted-endorsement/
We will see a better relationship between the U.S. and the Korean Peninsula with Obama, who sternly criticizes Bush and who would meet the leader of Chosun without pre-conditions, than with the “Bush clone†and scarecrow of the neocons McCain.
Unfortunately public individuals like Buzz or Obama have no control over nut cases who try to get the media spotlight by endorsing them.
Fortunately the American media had the good sense to ignore Kim Jong-il’s endorsement of Obama. The same should be done for the La Rouche kooks as publicizing this type of endorsement just discredits the entire space advocacy movement. You might as well write of Richard Hoagland’s endorsement of manned missions to Mars…
NASA doesn’t need more funds to accomplish its missions… it’s $17+ Bn annual budget is big enough to do that (and more) …they only need to spend this money without BURN billion$$$ for useless, slow and very expensive new devices like the $1.2 Bn R&D J-2X, the $3 Bn R&D 5-segments SRB and/or the (new) 5.5 segments SRB, the $10 Bn R&D (NASA evaluation) to $14.4 Bn R&D (GAO evaluation) Ares-1, etc. (as explained on ghostNASA.com)
Buzz Aldrin is certainly a person to respect, but I don’t really see his view as being in synch with the current direction of the country.
Not to deviate from the topic here too much, but I like the vision for space and NASA articulated by former Speaker Newt Gingrich in this week’s Aviation Week & Space Technology. His editorial, “Space First, NASA Second,” makes several key points:
– “We must remove NASA from the space transportation business and return it to investing in radical technology and innovative research, a model akin to the National Science Foundation…To succeed in space, the U.S. needs high-tempo research with minimum supervision…Scientists and experts should be given relatively free rein to explore.”
– “…the U.S. should focus its space program on encouraging private space entrepreneurship. This means we must create strong incentives for private sector investment.”
He also makes several other forward-looking proposals, including use of prizes to stimulate a variety of ambitious space endeavors. Hopefully, Newt will have influence on the formulation of ideas for both campaigns.
Actually, NASA does not need Newt to tell them what they should do in space, all the next president would have to do is hire ghost nasa to run the show. That guy has more ideas then Einstein.
[…] Space Politics » Unwanted endorsements […]
Actually, NASA does not need Newt to tell them what they should do in space, all the next president would have to do is hire ghost nasa to run the show.
You’re joking, right?
Rand, finally I agree with you on something…
“all the next president would have to do is hire ghost nasa to run the show”
Rand, finally I agree with you on something…
yes rand, I was being facetious. smiles
Learn to read, gm.
“Learn to read, gm.”
also my reply was a joke to support your irony…
seriously, I did not need any support from you (or from other Direct-lobby guys) to publish my ideas on my website and blog and to talk about them on EVERY free and democratic space forum and blog that allow that
“Oh no! Space aliens! Bioduplication! Nude conspiracies! Oh my God! Lyndon LaRouche was right!”
– Homer Simpson
Citizen Kang
The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horrors VII