By Jeff Foust on 2005 August 4 at 7:03 am ET A CBS News poll released yesterday suggests that the public is more skeptical about the future of the shuttle program than ever before. The poll of 1,222 adults, conducted from July 29 to August 2, found than 59% thought the shuttle is worth continuing, down from 75% just after the Columbia accident; support was also in the 70–80% range in polls in 1999 and 1986. NASA’s “job rating” is also the lowest in five polls going back to 1993: 55% rated NASA’s job performance as “excellent” or “good”; previous polls had excellent/good levels of 57–70%.
However, another poll by Rasmussen Reports is a little more optimistic about the long-term prospects of space exploration. That poll, of 1,000 adults on July 27–28, found that two-thirds of them thought having a manned spaceflight program is “very important” or “somewhat important”. In addition, 71% thought it was very or somewhat likely that humans would be back on the Moon within the next 25 years, and 55% thought humans would be on Mars in the same period. (Respondents were a little more pessimistic about the long-long-term, though: only 41% thought it was very or somewhat likely that there would be “human colonies” on other planets in the next century.)
What does all this mean? First, there are the usual caveats about polls, which (as noted here last month) can yield diverging results because either the public has weakly-held, inconsistent positions on space issues or because of careful crafting of the survey instrument. However, if polls hold true, and the public is interested in long-term exploration of the Moon and Mars, but is less supportive of the shuttle, will we start to see a greater push for the early retirement of the shuttle before 2010?
By Jeff Foust on 2005 August 3 at 7:53 am ET The Washington Post has published the complete transcript of President Bush’s interview with Texas newspaper reporters on Monday. Most of what Bush said about space policy was already captured in the quotes included in the Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News. One additional note: Bush said that Andrew Card, his chief of staff, “has been in touch with the administrator, who believes that — the comments tell me, and the administrator says that — that is, the comments in the press — that they can clear this problem up.”
Bush also talked briefly yesterday with the shuttle and station crews (this time using a bigger TV!), although the only person in orbit who directly talked with the President was shuttle commander Eileen Collins. As you might expect, there was little of any substance discussed, although we did learn from the President First Lady Laura Bush, who attended the shuttle launch, “came back all excited about the energy that — there on the East Coast of Florida.” Clearly a major policy development.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 August 2 at 5:30 am ET Since his speech at NASA Headquarters just over 18 months ago unveiling the Vision for Space Exploration, President Bush has been quiet in public about the VSE and NASA in general, causing some people to question his commitment to the effort. However, in an interview yesterday with reporters from several Texas newspapers, he did address space policy. The Houston Chronicle reports:
Despite nagging problems with the space shuttle program, President Bush said Monday that he remains optimistic that NASA can fully achieve his ambitious goals for human travel to the moon and Mars.
“I am confident NASA will be able to implement the vision I laid out and that is to use the moon as an exploratory base to go further into space,” Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with five Texas newspapers.
[…]
As NASA examined problems with launch debris and the space shuttle Discovery’s outer skin Monday, Bush said the space agency’s long-term prospects are excellent and will inspire the nation.
“I am confident that we will develop the engineering and the rocketry to do so, I am confident the astronauts are fired up about the program, but most importantly I am confident this will give the American people a reason to be engaged and rooting for NASA’s success.”
A Dallas Morning News article about the interview also brings up the fate of the shuttle program at the end:
Said NASA would have to decide whether to retire the shuttle before 2010. “That decision will be made by the experts at NASA,” he said, offering support for the space program.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 29 at 4:59 pm ET NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will be in a hot seat normally reserved for politicians on Sunday morning: as a guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press” hosted by Tim Russert. The program will also include a “historic” interview with three members of the shuttle crew: Eileen Collins, James Kelly, and Charles Camarda. While Griffin’s appearance is billed as an exclusive to MTP, the shuttle mission and space policy will make appearances on other Sunday morning talk shows, including “Face the Nation” on CBS.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 28 at 6:48 pm ET It depends on what end of Pennsylvania Avenue you’re on. At the White House, space came up during for the second time this week. McClellan put the best possible face on NASA’s decision to halt future shuttle flights until the ET foam problem is resolved:
Q Is the administration going to take any steps to take a hard look at what’s going on with the shuttle program at NASA right now? Does the President believe that the NASA administration has an effective control of the program, in light of what’s happened the last 24 hours?
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, a couple things. One, the safety of the crew is the top priority. The President relies on the judgment of the experts, the engineers at NASA. Engineers at NASA look at all the issues, and they assess the risk. The President appreciates NASA’s commitment to safety and acting out of an abundance of caution. He is confident in the job that Administrator Griffin and the experts at NASA are doing.
In terms of the latest announcement, NASA has not made any decision or announced anything about the timing of the next mission. The experts at NASA continue to look at all the facts and all the data. And once they have had the opportunity to do so, then they will come to some conclusions and make decisions about how to proceed.
[Scroll down not quote halfway through the transcript for this exchange.] A bit later McClellan added, “Space exploration is a high priority for the United States, and we want to continue to lead the way.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chair of the House Science Committee, is a little more skeptical about the shuttle program’s future. In an interview with an upstate New York radio station he expressed some apparent doubts about when, or even if, the next shuttle mission would take place:
Boehlert today told Binghamton radio station W-N-B-F: “The shuttle program is not dead — if they can find an answer to the questions about the foam.”
Boehlert said without that answer — in his words — “it will not return to flight.”
The article plays up the possibility that the shuttle may not return to flight, although it’s not clear whether Boehlert really believes that is a real possibility, or if he’s simply stating that the shuttle will not fly again until (rather than if) a fix is found.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 28 at 6:34 pm ET Aerospace Daily reports that Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), chair of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee, plans to meet with his Senate counterpart, Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), chair of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, as well as ranking member Bill Nelson (D-FL). The discussion will be in advance of any House-Senate conference on the NASA authorization bill, with a particular focus on setting a retirement date for the shuttle: Calvert and his colleagues had sought a 2010 retirement date (although the final version removed that language), while Hutchison and Nelson have sought to keep the shuttle flying beyond 2010, if needed, until a replacement vehicle is operating. One wonders how yesterday’s decision to postpone any future shuttle launches until the ET foam problem affects these discussions—particularly if the delay stretches beyond just a few months: will it prompt more calls for an early retirement of the fleet, or be ammunition for those who believe there’s no way the shuttle can be retired as early as 2010 and still get the ISS (mostly) assembled?
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 28 at 1:33 pm ET An editorial in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution criticizes the House of Representatives for approving NASA authorization legislation last week that includes language endorsing the Vision for Space Exploration. The AJC’s complaints cover the usual ground, primarily that we can’t “afford” the VSE because of the huge budget deficits, Social Security and Medicare shortfalls, and the like. Ho-hum.
At the end, though, the AJC endorses a proposal put forward by Rep. Barney Frank during the floor debate on the bill: “There ought to be a national debate, he [Frank] said in published comments, ‘about whether or not to commit these untold billions . . . at the expense of other important programs.'” Wait… isn’t what has transpired over the last 18 months been a national debate? There’s been a lot of back-and-forth since the VSE’s introduction about its merits, from hearing rooms on Capitol Hill to the editorial pages of papers like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. We’ve had the debate, and, at least for now, the supporters of the VSE have won in Congress. What more debate does Rep. Frank, or the AJC, want?
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 26 at 7:31 pm ET The Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee had scheduled a hearing this week on “NASA Passenger Aircraft: Mission Required or Expensive Perk?” However, at last report the hearing, which had been planned for Thursday, has been rescheduled for September 7, after Congress returns from the August recess.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 26 at 7:08 pm ET As White House officials indicated a couple weeks ago, just before the last launch attempt was scrubbed, President Bush did indeed take a moment Tuesday morning to watch the launch of the shuttle Discovery. (Although, I have to ask: can’t the President get a bigger TV than that? Maybe a nice plasma HDTV set? Or at least one with a bit bigger screen.) The President also did release a brief statement wishing the crew of Discovery well and adding that “this flight is an essential step toward our goal of continuing to lead the world in space science, human space flight, and space exploration.”
Press Secretary Scott McClellan read the statement at the beginning of Tuesday afternoon’s press briefing and then got into an exchange with one reporter who kept asking if Bush still “supports a Mars mission” and how that “Mars program” was going, which included this back-and-forth:
Q And how is the Mars program going?
MR. McCLELLAN: NASA can probably update you on the effort. Again, this is a long-term program, and you can sit there and smirk about it, but the President felt it was important — (laughter) — the President felt it was important to outline a clearly defined mission for NASA. And we’re all excited about today’s launch and we wish the –
Q Will he be speaking about it –
MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on — we wish the crew all the best.
Q Will he be speaking about it –
MR. McCLELLAN: NASA is working on implementing it, John. Thanks for starting out the briefing on such — (laughter.)
By Jeff Foust on 2005 July 25 at 12:56 pm ET I’ve written an article for today’s issue of The Space Review that goes into more detail on NASA’s implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration in general, and its increased emphasis on commercialization in particular. The article primarily expands on the key points I noted in earlier post on the topic, with some additional quotes from NASA’s Chris Shank and Brant Sponberg.
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