I was eagerly watching the entire President Obama (wild cheering) inaugural parade yesterday because my husband's brother-in-law, Don Pettit, was one of the astronauts marching on this most amazing day. It turns out the crew from the latest shuttle mission was at the very rear of the parade and the cameras cut away to an ad just as the nose of the new lunar rover appeared. "NOOOOooooo" went a collective moan from our couch. How could CNN so disrespect our need to see NASA's ace crew wag the end of the parade?
Otherwise, a very fine day of watching history unfold as I built a book catalog for Marsh Hawk Press and daughter Natalie draped herself on various surfaces and dozed on and off getting over a flu-like-thing.
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It is going to be very difficult for some to accept that NASA and American ambitions in space, particularly beyond the Shuttle and beyong low earth orbit, has no better friends in the White House than the two presidents from Texas. It isn't a partisan thing, mind you. Richard Nixon and the Democrats who controlled Congress in 1971 were no friends of manned exploration. The first GAP ran from Apollo-Soyuz in 1975 and the first launch of Columbia in 1981.
Being at the end of an Inaugural parade says volumes, and wasn't an accident.
It remains to be seen whether President Obama is as much a friend of space exploration and NASA as he claimed, changing his mind when Florida was in play in the nomination process. I certainly hope he is. But it won't happen by accident, and don't make the mistake of believing that support, if it materializes, will be shared by his staff or CNN.
As Franklin Roosevelt said of Washington, "never make the mistake of thinking anything happens in this city by accident."
And, as Harry S Truman said of Washington, "if you want a friend in this town, buy a dog."
Thanks for writing Joel. I sure hope NASA gets the support they need, it is an incredible program and deserves to be supported. America needs to send people to work and to the moon or Mars...
Maybe the new friendliness to science will include our space program, I sure hope so.
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