Fwd: Sen. Ted Cruz pleads with NASA to stop focusing on Earth

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 15, 2015 at 8:22:00 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Sen. Ted Cruz pleads with NASA to stop focusing on Earth

 

 

Sen. Ted Cruz pleads with NASA to stop focusing on Earth

Bolden referenced the act that created the agency to defend his opinion.

By Thor Benson   |   Updated March 14, 2015 at 8:16 PM

 

| License Photo

WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- During a hearing where NASA's $18.5 billion budget request was considered, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questioned NASA's objectives.

"I'd like to start by asking a general question," Cruz said to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "In your judgment, what is the core mission of NASA?"

"Our core mission from the very beginning has been to investigate, explore space and the Earth environment, and to help us make this place a better place," Bolden said, referencing the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 that created NASA.

Cruz disagreed, saying Americans believe NASA is strictly for exploring space. "I am concerned that NASA in the current environment has lost its full focus on that core mission," Cruz said.

Cruz's concerns seemed to express his opinion that NASA's focus on climate change was unnecessary and wasteful. Bolden defended the agency's focus on the Earth, saying, "We can't go anywhere if the Kennedy Space Center goes underwater and we don't know it -- and that's understanding our environment." He also said he's very proud of NASA's Earth-science program.

Cruz was made chair of the Senate subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, which oversees NASA, in January.                                  

© 2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

 

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Matt Reed: Ted Cruz, Brevard space champion?

Matt Reed, FLORIDA TODAY 12:26 a.m. EDT March 15, 2015

 

(Photo: FLORIDA TODAY file)

 

Sen. Ted Cruz suddenly matters to the Space Coast in a constructive way, not a destructive one.

Two years ago, the tea party Republican from Texas led the gamesmanship over Obamacare that caused a government shutdown, which sent thousands contractors home without pay from Kennedy Space Center. That wound came on the heels of a 2012 Republican platform and national convention — in Florida, no less — that called for no improvements or urgency for U.S. spaceflight.

"60 Minutes" had just showcased Brevard as an example of lost potential and personal fortunes since the shutdown of the shuttle program.

Cruz's antics kicked us while we were down, and I couldn't have disliked him more.

But today, with Republicans in charge of the Senate, Cruz leads the subcommittee that oversees the space agency's budget and priorities. And he is pushing in ways that stand to benefit Brevard most.

"Almost any American would agree that the core function of NASA is to explore space," Cruz said in a hearing Thursday.

He says developing a rocket and capsule to fly astronauts to Mars by the 2030s is "critical" to the nation's leadership. That means NASA's Space Launch System rocket, Orion Capsule and their launch equipment, now in the works at KSC.

Cruz also has championed NASA's privatized "commercial crew" program, in which SpaceX and Boeing will fly astronauts to the International Space Station. Both companies will launch from KSC, with Boeing hiring hundreds to build its capsule at the Cape.

"It is imperative that America has the capability to get to the space station without the assistance of the Russians," says Cruz, who represents Johnson Space Center, home to the astronaut program and Mission Control.

Those are the same priorities pushed for years by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, the Brevard native who flew on the space shuttle.

Nelson, the top minority member of Cruz's subcommittee, said he was "heartened and delighted" by the chairman's comments.

Leadership shortage

Still, expect plenty of hand-wringing and debate in space circles over Cruz's priorities for NASA.

• Should we try for Mars first, or an asteroid?

• Is it smart to shift millions from climate research to space exploration, as Cruz and Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, want?

Those arguments will rage regardless of who's in charge.

For now, it's refreshing to see at least one ambitious, nationally prominent politician seize initiative on space.

For years, Republicans accused President Barack Obama of bungling Brevard County's signature industry. They blasted him in speeches for canceling Constellation, botching thousands of shuttle jobs and relying on the Russians for lifts to the space station. Space is not Obama's strength.

Matt Reed: Has Rubio outsmarted the world?

But given a chance to do better, Republican leaders and presidential candidate Mitt Romney embraced a platform on space that called for … staying the course. Their plan was, literally, Obama's plan.

In Tampa for the 2012 convention, my question to Romney political director Rich Beeson went something like, "What the heck?"

"One thing Gov. Romney has not done is go to any particular place and pander to people there," Beeson told me. "He's running for president of the United States, not president of Florida."

Good plan.

Presidential position?

By comparison, Cruz immediately stated strong support for programs that would re-establish the United States' leadership in human spaceflight – programs that always seem handicapped by unrealistic funding and Congressional skepticism.

The commercial crew program, for example, initially was expected to send astronauts into orbit by this year, but its first launch was pushed back to 2017, FLORIDA TODAY correspondent Ledyard King reported. Some of Cruz's Republican colleagues have called for more oversight and even less money for the SpaceX and Boeing flights.

NASA's inspector general has warned flights could be delayed up to another three years if funding lags.

Could Cruz's support improve the fortunes for human spaceflight?

"That's what inspires little boys and girls across this country," he said. "It's what sets NASA apart from any other agency."

The likely presidential candidate has not yet helped the Space Coast more than his shutdown hurt.

But as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, Cruz sounds more like someone with whom Nelson and Posey can work.

And whatever you think of his politics, Cruz's early leadership on an issue so key to science, security and national pride does make him sound a bit more presidential.

See all columns and video by Matt Reed.

Contact Reed at 321-242-3631 or mreed@floridatoday.com. 

 

 

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