VP Harris Gives Astronaut Glover A Call
Vice President Kamala Harris Calls NASA Astronaut Victor Glover
“In celebration of Black History Month, NASA astronaut Victor Glover welcomed Vice President Kamala Harris to the International Space Station for avirtual chat. In the video recorded Feb. 24 and shared Saturday, the conversation ranged from the legacy of human spaceflight to observing Earth from the vantage of the space station, Glovers history-making stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, and preparing for missions from the Moon to Mars.”
Aside from VP Harris recognizing Victor Glover’s first, I’m amazed at how much better audio is from ISS than in years past.
Yes, the typical platitudes are all very nice. But can we finally get some concrete decisions from the new administration about Project Artemis? How about even any reactions to the growing criticisms of SLS?
SLS delenda est
Right. They have been there a month. Yet in that time they have made more than a dozen overtly supportive statements about space – and NASA. How many had Trump done by this point?
To me, the most positive sign was that of keeping the Artemis Lunar Lander selection on track after NASA offered to delay it for the change of Administrations, if I remember correctly.
No you remember incorrectly, They have delayed that selection.
I have gone back and read last month’s news, and found of course you’re correct. I’m concerned because real support for a program is demonstrated by taking the risk of prioritizing it and taking action, not just saying nice words. Nice sentiments are used as a tactic for enthralling kids while deflecting and delaying criticism for non-commitment and eventual disappointment of the supporters. So really, unless demonstrated otherwise, Artemis is running on the fading inertia from the earlier unceasing drive of Trump/Pence and Bridenstine. And even with that feet-to-the-fire-by-any-means pressure, full funding for a lander did not emerge. But I can still remember how excited I was when Vice President Agnew talked about crewed NASA missions to Mars in ten years…by 1985!
Usually the space advocacy community whines that NASA doesn’t get enough attention. Over the past month, both the President and the VP have focused their attention on NASA activities. I suspect there are members of the administration looking into Artemis, which has numerous moving parts and stakeholders. As Keith says, they’ve been in office for just over a month. When has space ever been among the top ten priorities for any new administration. They also want to spend time on selecting the best candidate to be the new administrator (please not Nelson). I’d prefer they conduct a thorough due diligence on the overall program, including a realistic assessment of costs, schedules, technical challenges and role of the commercial sector before they make public a statements about their intentions.
The press secretary was asked about Artemis and brought back a formal statement at a subsequent press conference. These official words impressed me as pretty darn clear support for Artemis. https://www.bbc.com/news/sc…
I was well aware of that statement.
It’s a worthless repetition of the Biden 2020 campaign document, lacking so much detail that almost any Biden ordered shift of NASA policy will have plausible deniability.
The lack of concrete detail from the Biden administration about Project Artemis is especially telling, considering that the Project Artemis schedule is now running off a cliff because of SLS development delays and most important of all, Congress cutting 75% of the lunar lander budget.
Simply saying, ‘we endorse Project Artemis’, is an evasive answer at best. Or a demonstration of stark blindness, at worst.
SLS delenda est
How many times are you going to post the same thing? You are trolling.
I agree that it was certainly better than stating we’re not going because “Buzz has already been there.” I suggest watching for actual action to maintain or improve Artemis, and then fight to support an expeditious schedule for it to reach the moon. An ambitious program, set beyond the run of the administration creating it (“by 2035”) is the typical, risk-free, political way of saving face while not really supporting it.
The positive energy and humility shown by both of them is infectious. They are building upon the paths of pioneers and by their own examples of leadership will only take us further to do even more bold things.
I am wholeheartedly in favor of continuing Project Artemis! Just NOT with the SLS/Orion. There’s a commercial outfit that already has a contract to develop items for the Gateway thingy. Why not just have them use the funds to develop the Lunar lander, etc.? No doubt will get it done faster, safer and under budget. Of course that outfit is currently getting ready to launch another crew to the ISS, sometime after April 22, so they say!
While it might be a positive sign, I wouldn’t read too much into this. After all, Nixon phoned the Apollo 11 astronauts…
Every president has called astronauts since astronaut started to fly into space. I have called astronauts from my house. It is what they say – not that they called.