NASA is a sore subject as it illustrates Obama's Marxist stains, leftist activism and ongoing destruction of American exceptionalism.
Flashback: Barack Obama: NASA must try to make Muslims 'feel good'
The head of the Nasa has said Barack Obama told him to make "reaching out to the Muslim world" one of the space agency's top priorities.
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Published: 8:00PM BST 06 Jul 2010
COMMENTS DISABLED IN SECTION
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Barack Obama wants Nasa to acknowledge Muslim achievements and contributions to science maths and engineering Photo: AFP/GETTY
Charles Bolden, a retired
United States Marines Corps major-general and former astronaut, said in an interview with
al-Jazeera that Nasa was not only a
space exploration agency but also an "Earth improvement agency".
Mr Bolden said: "When I became the Nasa administrator, he [
Mr Obama] charged me with three things.
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"One, he wanted me to help reinspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."
He added: "It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim [nations]."
Byron York, a conservative columnist for the
Washington Examiner, characterised Mr Obama's space policy shift as moving "from moon landings to promoting self-esteem"
Earlier this year, Mr Obama announced the scrapping of the moon programme in favour of an aspiration to visit Mars, cancelling the Constellation programme for manned space flight, the successor to the Space Shuttle.
It means Nasa would not be able to travel beyond the Earth's lower orbit without international assistance and need the help of allies to make it to Mars.
The proposal angered Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, the first and last men to walk on the moon.
Along with Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 commander, they issued a statement denouncing the decision "devastating" and a plan that "destines our nation to become one of second- or even third-rate stature."
More Flashbacks:
NASA To Focus On Muslim Outreach
Last Updated: Wed, 02/17/2010 - 3:30pm
A few weeks after killing the U.S.A.’s world-famous moon-mission program, President Obama has ordered the space agency that operates it to focus on reaching out to Muslim countries.
NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World
Published July 05, 2010 | FoxNews.com
Shown here is NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. (YouTube)
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit,
Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview.
The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the one-year anniversary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo -- in his interview with Al Jazeera, he described space travel as an international collaboration of which Muslim nations must be a part.
"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said. He held up the International Space Station as a model,
praising the contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.
Russia to allocate $8 billion to build space center in Far East
Vladimir Popovkin visiting the area where the Vostochny space center will be constructed
07:04 11/08/2011
MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti)
Russia will allocate about 250 billion rubles ($8.4 billion) to build the Vostochny space center in Far East, the head of the country's space agency Roscosmos said on Thursday.
Russia currently uses two launch sites:
Baikonur in Kazakhstan, which it has leased since the end of the Soviet Union, and Plesetsk in northwest Russia.
Russian space science blooms again
August 10, 2011
The Spektre R telescope shows the power of Russia's space program - and also has the potential to promote international cooperation.
A three-decade-long drought came to an end on July 18 when a Zenit rocket launched a Russian radio telescope into orbit. Not since the Soviet Union's economic and political fall have Russian space scientists been able to develop and launch such a cutting edge piece of research instrumentation as the Spektre R telescope.
China Analyst: U.S. Can’t Win in Space, So Why Bother Racing?
With access to
more than 400 satellites plus at least two
tiny, maneuverable robotic shuttles, the U.S. military is the clear leader in military spacecraft. But with 70 orbiters of its own, China is catching up fast. Last year,
Beijing matched Washington in space launches for the first time, boosting no fewer than 15 satellites into orbit. It was the first time any nation China kept a celestial pace with the U.S.
The new space race is on. But in the view of one influential analyst, the race isn’t worth the prize. Space “is expensive to enter, hard to sustain assets in, contains no defensive ground, and — barring energy-intensive maneuvering – forces assets into predictable orbits,” Andrew Erickson, a Naval War College professor and editor of the new book
Chinese Aerospace Power, told me as part of a
longer interview over at AOL Defense.
Top NASA official ‘rooting for’ China’s success in space exploration
Published: 6:23 PM 09/21/2011 | Updated: 6:24 PM 09/21/2011
By
Jeff Poor - The Daily Caller
In June 2010 NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., a retired Marine Corps major general, told Al Jazeera that one of his goals was “to reach out to and engage the Muslim world, making better known its historic contribution to science.”
Bolden now says it will take some motivation, perhaps from a not-so-friendly rival, for NASA to again be in a position to reach its goals.
Speaking to a group of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Institute’s annual history conference in Annapolis, Md. on Saturday, Bolden speculated that if China were to make advances in space exploration, the United States might seek to follow suit. And based on that assumption,
he said he was rooting for the rival nation on the other side of the Pacific.
“We haven’t talked about the Chinese,” Bolden said. “We can’t work with the Chinese right now.
But I’m rooting for them. They’re probably going to put a spacecraft called Shenzhou into orbit here, hopefully by the end of the year. It’s going to be the first capsule of their space station. And the reason they are doing that is that we are not allowing them to be partners right now. So they’re going alone. They need to be successful to drive us.”
Bolden, the pilot of two space shuttle missions and the commander of two other space shuttle missions, predicted if the Chinese mission is successful, we should expect further moves by the Chinese next year.
He also said that the United States doesn’t dominate space exploration like it once did and that the fact should be acknowledged.
NASA Chief Says US Could Cooperate with China in Space
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 03 November 2011 Time: 12:53 PM
While China and the United States don't see eye to eye on many issues, there is room for the two nations to
work together in space science and exploration, NASA chief Charlie Bolden says.
In fact, cooperation in the space arena could help bridge the divide between the two superpowers while potentially benefiting both, Bolden told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Capitol Hill yesterday (Nov. 2).
"Some level of
engagement with China in space-related areas in the future can form the basis for dialogue and cooperation in a manner that is consistent with the national interests of both our countries, when based on the principles of transparency, reciprocity and mutual benefit," Bolden said in testimony before the subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
Obama Ruins Kid’s Day
Ex-astronaut's advice to child: 'Study Russian'
BY:
Washington Free Beacon Staff - April 17, 2012 11:50 am
~snip~
In 2011, China launched more rockets into orbit than the U.S.—the first time ever, according to Gizmodo. Though the U.S. retains advantages in funding, the Chinese launched 19 rockets last year, while the U.S. launched 18; both were eclipsed by Russia, which sent 31 rockets into space.
When asked for advice Tuesday by a WUSA9 reporter, former Discovery astronaut Dr. Anna Fisher told a boy watching the shuttle, “Study Russian.”