AmericaSpace Note: Today former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has put his weight behind defeating the Senate’s 2010 NASA Reauthorization Act, which is to be voted on in the House sometime this week.
In a post, Marcia Smith of Space Policy Online reports that former NASA Administrator Griffin Urges House to Vote “No” on Senate NASA Authorization Bill. Griffin’s key point is,
“As happened after the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia, it is time once again to ask ourselves whether we want to have a real space program, or not. If we do, then the Senate Bill won’t get us there. If we cannot do better than that, then I believe we have reached the point where it is better to allow the damage which has been brought about by the administration’s actions to play out to its conclusion than to accept half-measures in an attempt at remediation.”
In other words, if we as a nation cannot get our Congress to vote on a real human space program that is appropriately funded, then we might as well end the charade that our nation has the willingness to do great things, including continuing to send humans into space.
Perhaps the former Administrator has a point. And this isn’t about spreading partisan blame; both Presidents Bush and Obama, along with Congress, have certainly played the starring role in getting us here by not fully funding Constellation since 2006. Why not admit in open what has been done by short-changing Constellation, that our nation no longer wishes to explore.
Perhaps then can the many talented contractors and NASA employees no longer needed begin to move on with their lives and we as a nation can begin our long, slow decline to our new status as a former world leader.
I guess I had better practice saying “would you like fries with that?”. Seriously, though, I wonder if this thing has gone on so long that we are pushing the Senate version through so we can at least have something to look forward to. The concern is, if we listen to Mr. Griffin (even though I believe he is right), we will spend another year debating what is best, while the space workforce dwindles away to nothing. At least this way, we are accepting the lesser of two evils, which is still much better than Obamaspace.