You idiots waste time on discussing who gets orbiters--- ought to return them to operation--- what losers, chronicle, Nelson ! Protecting NASA Now is the time to get politics out of the space agency budget so NASA can soar Houston Chronicle (Editorial) When U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., speaks about NASA, we pay close attention for two reasons: Nelson has been there. He flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1986 as a payload specialist. He knows space first-hand. In his years as a U.S. senator, the Florida Democrat fashioned a model bipartisan partnership with another NASA stalwart, former Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. For many years, their across-the-aisle teamwork served both the nations and the space agencys interests well. Its a new and bitterly partisan day in Washington, D.C., and Nelson rightly worries that the future of the space agency is being threatened by the atmosphere of perpetual disagreement. What is sad to me is that NASA has always been above politics, Nelson told the Chronicles Stewart M. Powell. Now its gotten to be a partisan issue, and that is a sad day for the country. While we largely concur with Nelsons view, history tells us that NASA has not always been above politics. Actually, quite a lot of politics has been played throughout the space agencys history from its very beginnings. It was in large part due to the political skills of two Texans, Lyndon B. Johnson and longtime U.S. Rep. Albert Thomas of Houston, that among the first words uttered from the surface of the moon was Houston. It was, of course, the efforts of these two Texas political giants that brought the Johnson Space Center here more than five decades ago. And politics certainly drove President John F. Kennedys decision to commit this nation to land a man on the moon during a speech at Rice University in September 1962. Lately, however, politics of a more destructive, partisan sort have indeed threatened NASA. There was President Barack Obamas decision to bypass Johnson Space Center as the location for one of the retired space shuttles. That still stings. And now we find Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, rightly in Nelsons sights for playing partisan politics with NASA funding. We think the most thoughtful solution to this problem comes from Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, considered one of the most zealous partisans in Washington on most issues. Not on this one. The Westside Houston Republican, whos expected to chair the House subcommittee with responsibility for NASA in 2015, has proposed removing the space agencys budget from the political cycle and making the directorship a 10-year appointment. Culberson is right on this. His ideas deserve support. END
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:51:45 +0000
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