Sad, really
(Telegraph) Fifty years after Glenn’s groundbreaking flight on Feb 20, 1962, the former senator said he regrets that ignoble end of the heated space race that captivated the world in the second half of the 20th century.
“I regret that that is the way things have developed,” Glenn told a crowd at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Saturday night, part of a series of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of his flight.
“We spent over $100 billion dollars putting the space station up there. It’s too bad in the previous administration the decision was made to end the shuttle, so now we have to go somewhere else to even get up to our station,” said Glenn, who served as a Democratic senator from Ohio between 1975 to 1999.
The Telegraph points out that yes, the shuttles were announced to be retired by the Bush administration, due to high costs and because Bush, and NASA, wanted to move to a newer vehicle to replace the much aging shuttles. What’s not mentioned by Glenn is that the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, convened after the shuttle Columbia accident, pretty much recommended that all the shuttles be grounded. Immediately. Because they were possibly too dangerous to fly. Also not mentioned by Glenn is that the Democrat Congress, beginning in 2007, failed to properly fund the Constellation program, which would have provided the next generation of space flight.
Nor did Glenn mention that Obama was on-board with ending the space shuttle program, and has further failed to properly fund the next generation space vessels. And, why we certainly cannot place the “blame” squarely on Obama, either, nor should we, he did move $4 billion in NASA funds from space exploration to climate change idiocy.
Anyhow, Ed Morrissey has some nice words on the 50th Anniversary.
