NASA Funding Needed
I am a big fan of both Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden and Lori Garver, the new NASA administrator and deputy administrator, respectively. But I hope they find an administration and Congress willing to fund more than just a NASA program “relevant” to our current national challenges.
NASA has not been, and should never be, primarily about our nation’s current challenges. Reflecting back on NASA’s glory years, Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) points out that NASA has been adrift for many decades, but he gets it entirely backward when he places the question “What do you plan to do to change this?” at the feet of the new appointees.
Without a bold vision from the president and a budget from Congress to match, no new leadership will be able to restore NASA to its glory years, not even these two enormously competent veterans.
It’s like the old NASA joke about faster, better, cheaper – pick any two; but in this case it is low budget, successful, inspirational – pick any two. Sen. Rockefeller, as a taxpayer and voter I do not need NASA to justify its existence, I need Congress to do so.
Hoyt Davidson
New York