Congress, NASA, Other

Bolden interview; Nelson criticism; Supreme Court’s NASA decision

Space News published this week an exclusive interview with NASA administrator Charles Bolden, where he, in part, tried to quiet the debate about the ability of NASA to develop a heavy-lift rocket. “The interim report that we turned in Jan. 10 was in fact an interim, and it did not say we could not” build an HLV on the schedule and budget laid out in the NASA authorization act. “We are a can-do agency so we did not say we could not do what [Congress] told us to do in the authorization act.” He said that the reference vehicle designs in that report will be the ones NASA will develop “if we can find a way to make it happen”; otherwise, “we will come back with alternatives that we will have developed through coordination with industry and the Congress.”

Bolden, in the interview, also distanced himself and the agency from the FY11 budget request released nearly a year ago, saying President Obama’s April 15 speech at KSC was “the new baseline”. “I don’t even go back to the budget rollout because that’s moot.” That budget rollout was criticized again by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) during a meeting with Florida reporters on Wednesday. Nelson said how the administration handled its plans for NASA was one example of “major mistakes” made by the White House with respect to Florida. Nelson said the budget proposal contained “disastrous” language that made it appear that the administration was ending human Spaceflight rather than restructuring it. Those comments echo similar language made by Nelson in previous months.

Yesterday the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that background checks of employees and contractors by NASA are legal, after employees at JPL, claiming that they were violations of their privacy rights, sued to stop them. The full decision goes into much further details and includes a concurring opinion by Judge Anton in Salina, who disagrees with the plaintiffs’ claims of a right to “informational privacy” that “bars the Government from ensuring that the Hubble Telescope is not used by recovering drug addicts.”

41 comments to Bolden interview; Nelson criticism; Supreme Court’s NASA decision

  • red

    “Bolden, in the interview, also distanced himself and the agency from the FY11 budget request released nearly a year ago, saying President Obama’s April 15 speech at KSC was “the new baseline”.”

    I’d prefer the original, but In the spirit of compromise, I’ll take the April 15 KSC speech as the new baseline. Even though April 15 includes an expensive Orion derivation, there would still be enough funding for commercial crew, robotic precursors, exploration technology demonstrations, propulsion research, KSC modernization, human research, and general space technology to actually make some progress.

  • amightywind

    Anyone who works in a position of public trust needs to have a background check. They are just trying to find out if you are somewhat truthful. Sorry liberals. That’s “Antonin Scalia”, my favorite Justice.

    Bill Nelson is in big trouble in Florida. He watched the rise of Marco Rubio and the fall of Charlie Crist. The spacecoast will soon be a ghost town thanks to Obama’s pogrom. Nelson would have been a lot better off with Constellation humming along. It’s hard to see how he can win unless he can ‘bring home the bacon’, and quick. The loss of Florida will also be the end of Obama. And why did he blow away NASA? To make room for some of his trendy industry buddies and SpaceX. Hard to fathom.

  • Justin Kugler

    Once again, you misrepresent the arguments of others, amightywind. They do not object to all background checks. They object to what they consider overly-intrusive and unnecessary inquiries into their personal and private lives given that there are no clearances for classified information involved.

    The delays in Constellation would have meant austerity for the Space Coast after Shuttle retirement. There is absolutely no evidence that the FY2011 budget proposal was a gift for SpaceX or other NewSpace entities.

    What is hard to fathom is why you keep repeating demonstrably false claims.

  • Robert G. Oler

    “Florida. Nelson said the budget proposal contained “disastrous” language that made it appear that the administration was ending human Spaceflight rather than restructuring it. Those comments echo similar language made by Nelson in previous months.”

    this is pretty goofy. There was almost nothing that the Obama administration could do once it made the decision that they were going to carry out the Bush administrations ending of the shuttle AND they were going to let Cx fall of its own mass.

    The folks who view human spaceflight as either an entitlement or technowelfare (even though they wont use those words) wont be satisfied unless they have their entitlement and technowelfare.

    This is the future of the GOP in particular. The GOP is the party that is addicted to endless spending. Its the legacy of Bush…spend a lot of money that you have to borrow and in the process keep taxes low…so that the people who finally have to come in and fix things are seen as the “bad people”.

    In the end the 15000 (wow thats three aircraft carriers) load of people who make the shuttle come and go for what 4 or 5 missions a year…had a choice. Go do something productive and let the nation get back to a robust space effort in HSF or just keep drawing a check and claiming that everything that they did was “hard” so they needed all those people.

    By 2012 the GOP “tea party” folks will be out of gas (if they are not by the end of this year) frustrated with the notion that the GOP is worse at cutting spending then the Dems were…and wondering about their “revolution”…

    Robert G. Oler

  • Gary Anderson

    Several points before I begin my work day:

    I concur with ‘amightywind’ that Anton Scalia is my favorite SC Justice, the last 99-0 confirmation on the USSC. Argueably, the greatest jurist mind to ever sit on that bench.

    I agree with ‘amightywind’ that Bill Nelson is in trouble, without regard to anything space related.

    I disagree with him regarding Constellation. Constellation needed to go and it should have never started under my Republican leadership of 2004. That was a mistake, the ghost town should have arrived sooner. Money ‘then’, should have been put towards the likes of Sierra Nevada and others. Hate this term, because it is associated with the left, but it fits, Move-on.

    DreamChaser and the same deserve our total attention or we die here debating endlessly on worthless blogs.

  • Aremis Asling

    “They are just trying to find out if you are somewhat truthful. Sorry liberals.”

    Is that really a liberal issue? I’m a liberal and I frankly don’t care one way or another.

    Although I disagree with the hyperbolic ‘recovering drug addict using Hubble’ comment. Making that sort of generalization from the bench about a claimant in the case is flirting in dangerous judicial ethics territory. Save it for the memoir, Tony.

    “Nelson would have been a lot better off with Constellation humming along.”

    Perhaps, but it would be at great expense to a nation which would continue to gut their space program to throw billions at a project that seemed perpetually 7 years on the horizon.

    “And why did he blow away NASA?”

    To reinstate the visions of both Dubbya and Reagan?

    “To make room for some of his trendy industry buddies and SpaceX.”

    Oh wait, Obama’s an industry schill now? Where’s the pro-business guys on this one?

  • amightywind

    By 2012 the GOP “tea party” folks will be out of gas (if they are not by the end of this year) frustrated with the notion that the GOP is worse at cutting spending then the Dems were…and wondering about their “revolution”…

    If the economy were in recovery, perhaps. But its not. So 2012 will be a referendum on a Whitehouse and Senate that resist the House’s reforms. This highlights the issue.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704405704576064282100893372.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

    Oh wait, Obama’s an industry schill now?

    We have argued this endlessly. Obama picks winners in industry and rewards those cronies who align with him. GE, big ethanol, big Pharma, the autos, and SpaceX. That is his version of top down capitalism. The majority of American business, as represented by the Chamber of Commerce can’t stand him.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Old Fart wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 8:56 am

    “Mr. Oler & Smith; and other posters
    , if i may , what they view as the “Sputnik” of today in 2011??”

    To carry the conversation from another thread…the “Sputnik” of today is the constant babble about “terrorism” brought on by 9/11.

    I define the “sputnik” moment much as Stephen does…ie an event which really was not all that threatening but which caught on by the politicians of the day who were trying to make other points…and which they continually latched all those other points onto that main theme.

    The only place Sputnik changed the balance of power (or Yuri Gagarin for that matter) was in the matter of public perception…particularly to a nation that was less then 15 years from WW2…sputnik could easilly morph into the next “hitler”and the next thing you know it did.

    9/11 was a bad day but ever since then it has been used as the excuse to invade two countries which really didnt threaten the US, unparralled breaches of the Bill of Rights in the US, goofy spending on things like homeland security…and at least four trillion of the debt the last President ran up.

    What 9/11 should have been used for is the pivot point for energy independence, for some serious thinking about our positions in the world and most importantly for a strengthening of our economy.

    there are a lot of people who want a “sputnik” for spaceflight. Whittington has the Chinese about to take over the Moon, Paul Spudis is all game to spend 100 billion or so to find the amount of water on the Moon that could be launched into space for about 1-2 billion, …sadly those dogs just are so ridiculous, they wont hunt.

    Meanwhile we no longer have a manufactoring base to support the middle class, China hold enormous amount of our debt and we somehow think that tax cuts for the very wealthy is going to make the economy rebound (after having helped sink it)

    all is well.

    Robert G. Oler

  • Robert G. Oler

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 9:34 am
    …

    “If the economy were in recovery, perhaps. But its not. So 2012 will be a referendum on a Whitehouse and Senate that resist the House’s reforms”

    assuming (as I suspect) that the economy does not recover or falls back (which I think it will) the battle is going to be between the notions of how to fix the economy…and the Obama administration is just so tone deaf that I can see it losing that…but in the end the GOP House is going to have to come up with a budget…

    and it is not going to be very popular. WAtch what the NASA budget looks like

    Plus they will waste a lot of time on goofy things like repealing a health care bill that has no chance of being repealed.

    as for crony capitalism…wow after Bush with TARP to claim that this is a hallmark of the Obama administration is strange. But that FAlcon is still spinning out of control!

    Robert G. Oler

  • Justin Kugler wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 8:37 am

    What is hard to fathom is why you keep repeating demonstrably false claims.

    Because it’s the nature of neocons to twist facts to fit an agenda. It’s called the “Big Lie.” Repeat it enough and it becomes the truth.

    Don’t expect Windy to change in this regard.

    As for Gen. Bolden’s interview, he was very politic; “We presented baseline reference vehicles, and ideally if we can find a way to make it happen, the baseline reference vehicles will be the vehicles of the future. If we can’t, then we will come back with alternatives that we will have developed through coordination with industry and the Congress. So my hope is we’ll make this thing firm, but I can’t say that right now.

    He is simply stating the truth. It’s the Congress-critters problem it isn’t what they want to hear.

  • Martijn Meijering

    Nelson said the budget proposal contained “disastrous” language that made it appear that the administration was ending human Spaceflight rather than restructuring it.

    No, the appearance was caused by Nelson et al who were knowingly misleading people into believing that’s what it said. And now he is blaming Obama for something he himself was complicit in. The man has no shame.

  • Aremis Asling

    “Argueably, the greatest jurist mind to ever sit on that bench.”

    Over-reaching a bit are we? While I have my disagreements with Scalia, I do think he’s very good at what he does and in the end, he’s a good addition to the bench. But the ‘greatest jurist mind’? Unless you’re his grandmother, that kind of praise is a little beyond the pale.

    “Obama picks winners in industry and rewards those cronies who align with him.”

    And this is different than other presidents how? Every president favors their pet projects and whomever is positioned to make a buck off of those projects gets rewarded handsomly. Just take the defense and petroleum industries during George W’s terms. But unlike defense and petroleum, SpaceX doesn’t have the political clout to justify the sort of crony behavior you’re suggesting. And unlike Bush, who reserved his comspace funding to NewSpace only firms, Obama opened the field up to old guard aerospace firms. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that fledgling NewSpace firms, SpaceX included, weren’t too keen on competing with Boeing and ULA for funding.

  • Martijn Meijering

    Obama picks winners in industry

    When it comes to spaceflight he was trying to do the opposite: stopping Congress from picking a winner and procuring launch services competitively instead.

  • Robert G. Oler

    dad2059 wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 9:47 am

    what is going to happen shortly is that there are going to be increasing calls for the HLV to be bid commercially…and Charlie is going to shove that in the “free enterprise” Senators face…ie “we cant build a SDV but we can build a heavy lift if we do it “this” way, which would you like a HLV or not”.

    and then the GOP pain begins…because what they want is to keep the pork machine going

    Robert G. Oler

  • Coastal Ron

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 9:34 am

    Obama picks winners in industry and rewards those cronies who align with him.

    LOL. And you think Republicans don’t do the same? K Street Project, Haliburton, Enron… the list is long and vibrant. If you think both parties don’t do the exact same thing, you are truly mental.

  • amightywind

    and Charlie is going to shove that in the “free enterprise” Senators face…ie “we cant build a SDV but we can build a heavy lift if we do it “this” way, which would you like a HLV or not”.

    Interesting and likely scenario, incorrect conclusion. The Senate will demand someone new who will do the job. The Senate needs an administrator it can work with.

  • Robert G. Oler

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    The Senate wont demand squat in terms of who runs NASA. There is almost no history in modern times of the Senate demanding and getting someone new in an executive branch position

    You dont know American government…

    Charlie is doing just what I predicted he would do…he slowly but surely killing off the beast of Constellation and the post Apollo infrastructure.

    It is quite amazing to watch.

    Robert G. Oler

  • John Malkin

    Interesting and likely scenario, incorrect conclusion. The Senate will demand someone new who will do the job. The Senate needs an administrator it can work with.

    A puppet? or a scapegoat? decision decisions decisions…

  • Vladislaw

    Robert G. Oler wrote:

    “The GOP is the party that is addicted to endless spending. Its the legacy of Bush…spend a lot of money that you have to borrow and in the process keep taxes low…so that the people who finally have to come in and fix things are seen as the “bad people”.”

    They even did it to one of their own. President Bush Sr. said “read my lips, no new taxes” then had to retract that after realizing the deficit spending of President Reagan had to be paid for. I guess Cheney was wrong, deficits do matter.

  • vluture4

    The only outfit here that knows what it’s doing right now is SpaceX. Constellation will continue to hemorrhage money and produce nothing useful until it is finally canceled, perhaps years and billions from now. NASA does not have one dime to waste, let alone the kind of money that is currently going down the drain.

  • Because it’s the nature of neocons to twist facts to fit an agenda.

    I doubt if abreakingwind is a “neocon.” I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

  • amightywind

    Once again, you misrepresent the arguments of others, amightywind. They do not object to all background checks. They object to what they consider overly-intrusive and unnecessary inquiries into their personal and private lives given that there are no clearances for classified information involved.

    I’ve been through the process, at least for the FAA, form 85P. No the work isn’t classified, but FAA don’t welcome espionage, sabotage, drug use, or an extensive criminal record. It means divulging your life history for the last 7 years. Radicalism (right or left) isn’t welcome. The FAA is answerable to the public not to hire burn outs. Such people might be more interested in elective office.

  • Das Boese

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 8:08 am

    “The spacecoast will soon be a ghost town thanks to Obama’s pogrom.”

    That word doesn’t mean what you think it means.
    It’s a good idea to be aware of historical context and connotations of words before you carelessly slap them in a sentence for dramatic effect.

  • Aremis Asling

    “I’ve been through the process, at least for the FAA, form 85P.”

    If you look at the case itself it actually refers specifically to in person intrusive interviews involving open-ended questions and has nothing at all to do with forms of any kind. Furthermore, it doesn’t object to a standard background check (they likely go through them already prior to joining JPL anyway). Those checks would turn up any past criminal convictions and likely involve a drug screen. I had to go through a drug screen and background check to be a weekend janitor at the 2nd tier Wisconsin state university I attended. I imagine they’d cover that for a high profile job, such as at JPL, at a major California university.

    Additionally, in contrast to all who have mentioned it thus far, the primary contention is that information security isn’t a perfect science and therefore the information stored could be accessed in the future, thereby releasing their private information. And if they aren’t actually employed by the government, nor are they working on sensitive information, there’s no reason to expose them to that risk.

    I agree with the Supreme Court in that there’s no real reason to suspect that their personal data will ‘get out’ and that it too strictly limits their ability to screen incoming employees. And again, to return to my original point, I’m a liberal and I totally agree and feel no paigns of purist remorse for feeling that way. So at least in my case I’m not sure why other liberals like myself would feel particularly upset about the case.

  • Major Tom

    “The spacecoast will soon be a ghost town thanks to Obama’s pogrom. Nelson would have been a lot better off with Constellation humming along.”

    No, after Ares I-X, Ares I test flight program was getting truncated to one more flight until the 2019 IOC (maybe 2017 if another $3-5 billion were thrown at the program).

    SpaceX was and remains on contract for at least a dozen CRS mission well before then, in addition to its three COTS test flights and commercial Falcon 9 payload backlog. With OSC launching Taurus II/Cygnus out of Wallops, the health of the Space Coast over the next decade was always dependent on SpaceX and ULA. Constellation cost growth and schedule slips had pushed any significant Ares I flight rate until 2020+.

    “Bill Nelson is in big trouble in Florida… The loss of Florida will also be the end of Obama.”

    The likelihood that any President or Senator will lose Florida based on KSC jobs is practically nil. Even assuming KSC workers, their spouses, and a couple of their neighbors all voted the same way (and they won’t), their numbers are dwarfed by much bigger retiree, Cuban, etc. demographic groups that aren’t going to cast their votes based on civil space issues.

    “And why did he blow away NASA? To make room for some of his trendy industry buddies and SpaceX… Obama picks winners in industry and rewards those cronies who align with him. GE, big ethanol, big Pharma, the autos, and SpaceX. That is his version of top down capitalism. The majority of American business, as represented by the Chamber of Commerce can’t stand him.”

    Utterly false. SpaceX hasn’t been awarded a single NASA contract since the Obama Administration came to power. SpaceX’s COTS agreement and CRS contract were competed and won under the Bush II Administration. You’re bashing a conservative, competed program for civil human space flight that was started under a Republican presidency.

    “Hard to fathom.”

    If you stop making things up and chasing false conspiracies, these things are very easy to “fathom”. Take some meds and get a grip on reality.

    “The Senate needs an administrator it can work with.”

    The NASA Administrator, and all political appointees in the Executive Branch, serve at the pleasure of the President. The Senate has no say after confirmation. Read a middle school civics textbook.

    Sigh…

  • Robert G. Oler

    From Lori Garver’s facebook page

    “Sen. Reid praised the American space program today: “The water we drink is cleaner. Our oceans are healthier. We diagnose cancer sooner. All because of the discoveries our space program has made possible. Our wounded warriors wear better & stronger artificial limbs…Firefighters can better track forest fires & are safer when they fight them. Airplanes fly smarter & even golf balls fly farther.”

    goofy “golf balls fly farther”? Gee

    no wonder he barely beat Sharon “2nd amendment remedies” angle

    Robert G. Oler

  • amightywind

    You dont know American government…

    I know it enough to perceive that Bolden is of declining value to Obama and that Obama might stand to gain by making the change. Bolden’s upside is nil. His downside is a further antagonism in the Senate.

  • DCSCA

    Bolden and Garver have flamed out. Zero credibility. If NASA has any future in the Age of Austerity, it is without the likes of these two.

  • Robert G. Oler

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    I know it enough to perceive that Bolden is of declining value to Obama..

    that of course is not what you said. YOu said that the Senate would demand change and they wont.

    Besides Charlie is winning and so is Obama at least on space policy…and you have been wrong every step of the way.

    Ding Hoa.

    (for our Chinese Brothers)

    Robert G. Oler

  • amightywind

    Das Boese wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    That word doesn’t mean what you think it means.

    Thanks, I do know what it means, and judging by your response it seems to have had the intended effect.

    Besides Charlie is winning and so is Obama at least on space policy…and you have been wrong every step of the way.

    It is one thing to be a fan, it is another to be in denial.

  • Coastal Ron

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 6:21 pm

    It is one thing to be a fan, it is another to be in denial.

    As someone who anxiously awaits the revival of Ares I, you are an example of both.

  • James T

    They wouldn’t kick Bolden any time soon anyways. If Obama replaced him, he would replace him with someone else in support of the new direction for NASA. It would just be another guy making the same decisions and under the same congressional heat. And who would want to take the job? In a country as crazy as ours it’s hard to predict what the political climate will be like in two years at the start of the next presidential term, with a different looking House, Senete and possibly oval office. Where’s the job security? They’ll let Bolden finish out Obama’s first (possibly only) term, then if they want a change they’ll make a change. The current authorization act (if not replaced) expires after 2013, making the start of the next term the perfect time for a fresh budget proposal and maybe a fresh face.

    If my wildest dreams come true, zombie Constellation will already be put to rest, SpaceX will have made great success fulfilling their cargo contract and making progress on crew capabilities. NASA will be primed to push forward with a robust science and exploration agenda, focusing on the missions themselves and getting good ‘ole fashioned American industry to get us there. If Bolden is the best man for the job, so be it, but I think someone with a more scientific background would do better for the new direction. Is Neil deGrasse Tyson looking for a job?

    If my darkest nightmares come to be, we will have committed ourselves to the money pit that is SLS. A new Republican controlled/dead-locked government is looking for money to pay off THEIR debts to the Chinese, and the name of the game is “scorched Earth!” We pull the rug out from under our ISS partners and succeed our leadership in space to the Chinese, maybe in exchange for a little debt reduction. NASA starts to let out a death knell and with an economy still in the stink hole, commercial space has no demand to supply.

    … That’s worst case scenario… it can’t get that bad… could it?

  • Robert G. Oler

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 6:21 pm

    It is one thing to be a fan, it is another to be in denial….

    LOL that from a person who had the Falcon 9 second stage spinning out of control…

    Robert G. Oler

  • Vladislaw

    amightywind wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 8:08 am

    “The spacecoast will soon be a ghost town thanks to Obama’s pogrom.”

    Pogrom

    “A pogrom (Russian: погром) is a form of violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres. The term usually carries connotation of spontaneous hatred within the majority population against certain (usually ethnic) minorities, which they see as dangerous and harming the interests of majority.”

    So let me get this straight, the space coast is going to become a ghost town because President Obama is going to look the other way as hundreds of thousands of people are going to be murdered by commercial space advocates. Then all the homes will be burned to the ground and all government NASA facilites with destroyed?

    I have to agree with what Das Boese wrote:

    “That word doesn’t mean what you think it means.
    It’s a good idea to be aware of historical context and connotations of words before you carelessly slap them in a sentence for dramatic effect.”

  • Coastal Ron

    Robert G. Oler wrote @ January 20th, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    goofy “golf balls fly farther”? Gee

    Actually it is a spinoff. Back in the 80’s & 90’s the golf ball companies put a lot of effort into understanding how the size, shape and placement of dimples on golf balls affected their performance. Big money in them balls, and lots of competition, so they look for any advantages they can find – aerodynamics is just one. Reid must be a golfer…

  • There are more than a few people running around Brevard County who think we’re about to blow away into dust because the Republicans claim it is so. I had a young woman who’s apolitical tell me the other day she was thinking about moving away to find work because her parents told her this county was going to be a ghost town once Shuttle stopped flying. I explained to her all the commercial business coming to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the jobs coming with them. Her parents never told her about any of that.

    Not to mention 20% of our population is over 65; if your career skills are health care, that’s a boom industry here.

    And the Disney Dream mega-cruise ship that just arrived, bring another 1,400 jobs.

    Five years from now, this county will be booming and all the lies will have been exposed.

  • Frank Glover

    “If Bolden is the best man for the job, so be it, but I think someone with a more scientific background would do better for the new direction. Is Neil deGrasse Tyson looking for a job?”

    Heaven knows I respect Neil, he’s ‘s inherited the space scientific popularizer mantle of Carl Sagan, and handles that quite well. But what are his management skills/experience? Engineering skills/experience? Political interfacing skills/experience? Does he support government HSF? (Sagan absolutely didn’t, except for its alleged ‘international cooperation’ value) Does he ‘get’ commercial HSF?

    I could be wrong, but I’m not so sure of all that…

  • Frank Glover

    And interestingly, I just ran across this video with Neil deGrasse Tyson on The Value Of NASA::

    http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tyson20110120

    …But I still say he has the vision, but not necessarily the ability to get down and dirty and administrate.

  • Matt Wiser

    At least Bolden finally admitted the disaster that was the FY 11 original budget request. Even the 15 Apr “Space Summit” revised budget was DOA on the Hill, and he hasn’t admitted that, either. A real Space Summit (instead of preaching to the choir like they did at the Cape that day) is what’s needed, and the new NASA Authorization Act calls for one, IIRC.

    Sagan and James Van Allen had the same attiude on HSF: openly hostile. Van Allen was even against cameras on unmanned probes, or so it’s been said.

  • Vladislaw

    Early on Van Allen was anti camera but by the time of the Jupiter Orbiter he was on board with it.

  • Matt Wiser

    Probably because Van Allen had seen what those cameras showed. I wonder how long he had that anti-camera attitude? You do mean the Galileo mission, don’t you? If it took him that long to see the merits of cameras on planetary probes….

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