NASA to the Rear
Published on Jan 20, 2009 at 6:00 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under politics.
Today marked the inauguration of our nation’s 44th president. In all of the media reports leading up to the event, I ran across an interesting note. NASA was to have a part of the parade! Now, this isn’t the first time that NASA was featured in a presidential inaugural parade. President Bush’s 2001 inaugural parade included a Space Shuttle model, and there was a NASA float in Jimmy Carter’s 1977 parade. NASA was featured in both of President Nixon’s inaugural parades. What makes this year’s NASA participation memorable is that it is only the second time in 40 years that a recently flown astronaut crew has been part of the parade. In 1969, Apollo 7 astronauts rode in the parade followed by their capsule and a mock-up of the lunar lander that was yet to fly. Today, it is the crew of STS-126 and NASA’s concept for a future lunar rover: the Lunar Electric Rover.
Hopefully, this means that the Obama administration sees the value of space exploration. Finding out that NASA was to have a prominent place in the parade made me hopeful. However, I then read that the NASA part of the parade has been placed last. I am not sure what to make of that placement. The new White House website lists an agenda for the new president. Nowhere on that agenda is space mentioned. There are some encouraging points about science and science education, but nothing specifically on space. So, that leaves me just guessing how the new administration will treat space exploration.
-Astroprof
Sili on January 22, 2009 at 3:11 pm: 1
No news is good news.
At least there was no mention that they’ll slash it completely, right.