Former NASA Administrator And Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe Endorses Joe Biden
Sean O’Keefe Trump and the RNC abandoned the Republican platform and the legacy of Ronald Reagan, NBC
“I have not always agreed with Biden, and it’s unlikely I will always agree with him if he is elected president. But when disagreements do occur, I will have returned to the ranks of the loyal opposition and will be able to express my objections and prescriptions by appealing to the deeply held principles that have guided him throughout his career in public service. Those differences will likely be due to conflicting views over policy, and at least the Democrats put out a party platform of policies to debate.”
Joe Biden is the best choice for space progress, Opinion, Sean O’Keefe and John Grunsfeld, Florida Today
“Today, Americans face a choice about whether we want to renew that vision and continue to lead the world in exploration beyond our own planet, and our drive to unravel the mysteries of the universe. With opportunities at hand for innovation and exploration, the United States can again go in peace for all humankind. We believe the best leader to realize that ambition is Joe Biden. Like President Kennedy, Biden believes that NASA represents the best of America and helps our country to be even better — that NASA inspires all Americans, serves as an engine for economic and technology developments, engages citizens in science and engineering, and boosts our global leadership by working with our partners across the world for continued peaceful development of space to the benefit of all.”
What if O’Keefe were to be brought back as NASA Administrator to put the “books back in order?”
OKeefe was good but Bridenstine is equally as good and with better support of spaceflight behind him. I’d rather see the current program continue.
I like and respect Sean and so glad he is healthy and able to express his opinions on the election but they are not ones that I share. Mike Pence has immersed himself in NASA and space fundamentals and his leadership is what I believe we need right now. I am not a big fan of SLS/Orion which i think everyone knows and the Vice President and Jim Bridenstine are but we have the same goals that for us true believers had almost decided was never going to happen and that is to go to and build permanent stations on the moon and provide support for lunar commercial and scientific development. I think we’ll get there with this administration, perhaps not by 2024 but we will go. VP Biden and certainly not Sen. Harris have ever indicated that they understand space is truly our new frontier, a frontier that can bring wealth to our country. The Pence approach to space is what I think might be compared to the transcontinental railroad, a grand feat requiring sweat, blood, and arduous labor to accomplish. I think we are past the era where space is for inspiration and maybe climate change observation. which is all that I hear from the Democrat party, bless its heart. Now is the time, with the technology maturing so rapidly, that we might finally roll up our sleeves and get to the hot, dangerous, and nasty work it will take to move into space but that will require the kind of leadership VP Pence can provide. Thanks as always, Keith, for your work with this site and beyond. And thank you, Sean, for reorganizing NASA and putting the agency back on a sound economic footing when it was very much in disarray. We all have our parts to play along the pathways to space.
There is no “Democrat Party.” Look it up.
Always happy to add an “ic” to that party/ 😉
The fundamental point here is that, narrow policy interests aside, the current administration has engaged in behaviors which are fundamentally destructive to the country, its survival as a functioning democracy, its standing in the world, the health of its citizens, and the vibrancy of its economy. Task #1 right now is saving the country. All else, space policy included, must come second.
And the platform plank from the RNC for space is………?????
Sean O’Keefe is a smart guy who can tell that trump/pence are just using our space program for their own narrow political purposes. Those two moved the planned landing on the Moon from 2028 to 2024 – because of some phony “race” with China. They are asking our people to take enormous risks with a very shortened test program – just to land people on the Moon in 2024. Might it have something to do with pence hoping that he will be running for President that year? With the current Artemis program we have too few tests, too little time. We are accepting serious risk of losing another crew – for a nonexistent race with China.
If pence (or trump) cared about our people they would have paid much closer attention to our current Covid-19 pandemic, instead they claimed that it was a hoax or would go away by itself. They do not understand risk and also hire people who will agree with anything they say – so they do not get valid counsel.
If the bungler and chief was serious about space he would have included 20 billion for a lunar landing in the TRILLION DOLLAR relief bill passed.
Harris? I do know someone by that name who could do a good job with space policy. Unfortunately, although the first name is pronounced the same way, it’s spelled differently, and the one I know is too young for the office in question. (Off topic I guess, but I’m sure my friend will get lots of double takes when her presentations are introduced at conferences and get more than a few misdirected tweets…)
If the Biden campaign wanted to throw a bone to people interested in spaceflight, they could just say something about Mr. Bridenstine being the only Trump appointee who seems to be able to do his job.
I am on board with Bridenstine keeping his job at NASA if Biden wins.
I think we are very close to the point where “space stuff” will advance on their own, with little government involvement. I think it is a little ironic that while people urgently want the Biden campaign to start releasing space policy statements advocating spending on space, it is also a popular idea around here to have SLS cancelled.
Spending more on real space exploration and cancelling SLS are not conflicting ideas.
Bridenstine must go and quickly, he signed on to the accelerated Artemis plan which accepts far too much risk for a phony reason. We need an Administrator that protects our programs. Now, no honorable person could have held this job for the last three years but at least we know one person who could never be depended on to voice an opinion.
As full disclosure; I’m not a U.S. voter or taxpayer – so I have ‘no skin in the game’ – other than being a close follower and supporter of crewed and un-crewed spaceflight for more than 50 years. But from where I’m sitting; Mike Pence and by extension, the Trump Administration have shown some good leadership **when it comes to Space**. One could argue about other aspects of the current Administration (Heh – I’m NOT a fan, for what that’s worth!!).
And also – from where I’m sitting – Jim Bridenstine seems to have been providing positive and pragmatic leadership. I really hope he is retained, the way Dan Goldin was by both Republican & Democrat leadership. I used to think that SLS was a useful backup, just in case Musk’s ‘Starships’ fail for any reason. But because of the now monstrous cost overruns; I no longer think that way. I think Falcon Heavy, Vulcan and New Glenn are the Starship backups.
Once the Shuttle-Derived paradigm moved away from the enhanced ‘Shuttle C’ style advocated by John Shannon and his team a decade ago; I think the program lost it’s way. Reshaping the Shuttle-heritage configuration too much made SLS intrude too far into ‘the clean sheet design zone’ in my opinion. By the time the expendable, dinosauric monster flies it will be $30 billion with a B in the hole. How many Falcon Heavy & Vulcan launches could you buy for that? Less than $30 Billion could have been spent developing a reusable Crew Lunar Lander!!
Twinned launches of Falcon Heavy and Vulcan-Centaur V from 2 or 3x KSC launchpads could accomplish Lunar ‘Sortie’ missions by slicing more than a Billion SLS dollars from each Lunar mission. Distributed Launch would also do away with the immediate need for the ‘Gateway’, which many of us know was conceived to make up for the Orion’s mediocre delta-v ability. But if the Gateway became a propellant depot for a reusable Crew Lander, it could certainly show its use in the future.
The broken watch syndrome.
Even a broken watch is right a couple times a day.
Their point is not about space policy, it’s about the ability of the country to function. There will be no functioning space program if there isn’t a functioning country left to run it.
Well, similar to what Todd Austin says, There will be no functioning economy if there isn’t a functioning Covid-19 response. Which is the point Biden is making, which I agree with. We all know that the main ingredient to climbing out of a recession is consumer confidence. I don’t see that happening until Covid-19 is behind us.