In an interview prior to his invited speech at Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Center in honor of National Astronomy Day 2010, Story Musgrave joined the chorus of astronauts coming out against the Obama administration’s NASA proposal. Put simply, Dr. Musgrave believes a fear of commitment is hampering the space program.
“Today’s program, what is the current administration proposing to get NASA access into space? It’s to think about a booster for five years and then make some decision about it,” Musgrave said. “Fifty years later, when we know the technology, we’ve got the infrastructure and we’ve got everything … we’re going to sit around and think about it for five years and then come up with some decision?
“If you look at every aspect of the current administration’s proposals for space, it’s afraid. It’s afraid to commit, it’s afraid to do anything,“ he said. “We’re not going to launch anything, we’re not going to build anything, we’re not going to do anything. We were afraid 50 years ago, but we had the will and the courage to move forward and it was simply ’Do it,’ and we did it.“