As reported yesterday by the Houston Chronicle’s Eric Berger in, “NASA chief: Mars is our mission, possibly in 2030’s, NASA Chief Charles Bolden indicates the president hopes to reach Mars before the timeline envisioned by the Constellation program. But then the NASA Administrator goes on to state that the U.S. would reach Mars in the 2030’s, even early 2030’s.
Well…there he goes again, apparently, NASA Administrator Bolden can’t keep his numbers straight. First, he misstates that Constellation needs another $7 billion per year to get to the Moon by the 2020’s when his own Augustine Committee said the number was $3 billion. Now Bolden states that the target decade for reaching the Moon is in the 2030’s when it’s the 2020’s.
Worse, Bolden keeps changing his destinations. In his press event at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, the NASA Administrator said that the Moon would be his first step. Now it’s Mars. One has to wonder if the NASA Administrator doesn’t know where he wants NASA to go, or if his talking points from the White House keep changing. Either is as likely as the other at this point.
(Via The Houston Chronicle.)
It’s no wonder to me. I firmly believe he was chosen for his position based on his ability to fall in line, and not for technical or programmatic leadership.
Tell me this, is there more esteem in being a figurehead of an organization that’s not going anywhere fast, or in being the head of a problematic organization that’s actually getting things done?
In no way, shape or form am I saying that things don’t have to change at NASA. I just think that all the Obama administration wants to do is scuttle it.