Thais Think That NASA Wants To Spy On Them (Update)
Nasa says study open to inspection, Bangkot Post
“After fears were raised that the plan might be a cover for a “spying mission”, Hal Maring, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s lead planner for the project, issued the invitation. He told the Bangkok Post Sunday that Nasa had already explained in detail the aircraft and sensors to be used in the SEAC4RS project.”
NASA cancels climate study project after Thailand delays decision to OK use of key air base
“NASA said it canceled the mission Tuesday “due to the absence of necessary approvals by regional authorities in the time frame necessary to support the mission’s planned deployment and scientific observation window,” according to the project’s website.”
Honestly I can understand them being wary. Many if not most of our own citizens in the USA think NASA has black ops programs run by the military, they really don’t understand it is a civilian space agency meant to be of public benefit. To expect the Thai people to be more educated on this than our own citizens stretches credibility.
“NASA has black ops programs run by the military”
This is so preposterous I cannot believe it has stood for an entire day
without comment. Nobody who isn’t a very silly person thinks this. I
understand from context you personally are more sober. But maybe I
have more faith in humanity because I would be shocked to learn most
people are this silly.
In fact the Bangkok Post says a recent poll indicates the Thai citizenry
are 70% in favor of such international scientific collaboration, so
maybe most people are not so silly as to heed every sinister
conspiracy whisper.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/…
More likely this is mischief-making by an opposition party that has
nothing to do with science or security, just embarrassing the political
opponents with procedural maneuvers.
The shuttle in the past has launched top secret payloads for the military. And a lot of the astronauts are military officers. End of story.
By this logic, SpaceX could be described as a shadowy military front
company running “black ops” if they succeed in their plan to provide
launch services to the Air Force/NRO on Falcon Heavy.
http://articles.latimes.com…
“SpaceX does not have a contract with the Air Force, which handles
communications and spy satellites launches, or the National
Reconnaissance Office, the secretive federal umbrella agency that
operates spy satellites. Musk said the Falcon Heavy will change that.”
SpaceX also employs a few ex-astronauts who may be former military aviators. You know who else likes to hire former military pilots? United Airlines. And Fedex, which was founded by a retired military officer who studied the military’s logistics and supply line strategies. there is nothing sinister about this, it just highlights the fact that the military is a place where you can build skills that may be useful to a later career in industry.
When you have the largest launch
capability in the nation the people with needs for the largest
payloads will beat a path to your door. It is a bit silly to suggest any entity, private or public, is a front for covert operations because of some very oblique connections or business transactions.
I agree concerning SpaceX. I do not agree concerning NASA. A goodly number of the astronaut corps for NASA are *current* active duty military officers, and they maintain their military relationships and position. The current NASA administrator, after he left the astronaut corps, became a Marine General and was in charge of the 3rd Marine Air Wing. After he retired from the military, he became the NASA administrator. If a military officer commits a crime while in the astronaut corps he or she may have to face military justice. Reference the jealous astronaut in diapers caper.
If NASA should need oh say, a US Navy P-3 Orion with special telescopic cameras to monitor a SpaceX capsule landing in the Pacific. It’s made available. NASA and the US military work hand in glove. Tell me that you understand this?
I make no judgement whether this is good or bad. However, the truth is always the best solution in these circumtances. Blowing smoke up people’s skirts just leads to more suspicion.
NASA works hand in glove with a lot of government agencies, including NOAA, the Forest Service, EPA, as well as many academic and private partners in addition to DoD. None of this is clandestine, it is all about science. This mission to Thailand included a G-V owned and operated by NSF. This is not very shady, but if it had been a Navy P-3 that would surely fuel the paranoid fantasy that the mission to Thailand had anything other than earth science goals.
“But maybe I have more faith in humanity because I would be shocked to learn most people are this silly.”
Have you seen poll results for belief in the Moon Landing Hoax, & 9/11 conspiracies. Silly is an understatement.
Exactly.
NASA currently has no need of” black ops” programs for spaceborne survellance. That’s a little silly . Especially when you consider that you and I can personally BUY high resolution spaceborne surveillance from Geo-Eye/Digital Globe etc. these days
However, in the early days of the shuttle program , the Department of Defense was a partner and were launching military sats from shuttles. They did this for 10 years, and all but one mission was classified ( the only one that didn’t deploy a sat ).
“Dr Maring said Nasa was a civilian agency with no connection to the US military.”
Not so.
We spy on EVERYBODY…
By the way , Siam ( Thailand) was the one nation in Indochina that was never conquered by the colonial powers. Back during the US Civil War, the Siamese ruler Rama IV offered Abe Lincoln a boatload of his best war elephants. Imagine’s Sherman’s march to the sea through Georgia with a few of THOSE…
During the Vietnam War, the US moved into Thailand big time, and built many air bases for those B-52 carpet bomb runs. One of them became the Bangkok Don Muang International airport after the war. There are many converted air bases throughout Thailand, including a large golf course resort up by Chiang Mai. So the US and Thailand have always been a little cozy , even though the country has had more military coups’ than any other nation in the region. Funny thing, though . When you travel thru Thailand today you see very little American ” presence”. Pretty much a bunch of 7-11 convenience stores and a few other brands such as Coca Cola, and that’s about it. The Germans, however, are hugely invested in Thailand, and the Thais’ approval of Americans fell significantly during Bush-Cheney.
Just saying…