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Rep. Frank Wolf Comments at Space Policy Institute
“I want America to beat China back to the Moon and be the first to Mars. I want the international community – countries that share our interests and values – working with the U.S., not the People’s Liberation Army, on their exploration programs. But this requires vision and leadership. Congress can only do so much without the White House, and unfortunately I don’t see that happening under this president.”
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
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Congress could do a lot more if they wanted to. They hold the purse strings after all, but instead they have been more focused on projects like SLS which contribute more to the space industrial complex than an actual vision for NASA and members have done little to put pressure on the president or their fellow congress people to make it clear that science/exploration are important. As for Wolf leaving, good riddance. NASA should be working with the Chinese, and while espionage is a valid concern until the American people are willing to fund NASA more than 0.5 percent we need every partner we can get.
Wolf has no problem with outright lies. “Ultimately, the contractor was arrested after lying to federal law enforcement about the contents of his computers and hard drive as he prepared to leave the U.S.” In fact, Bo Jiang was arrested by the FBI based on an allegation by Wolf, based on sources which to this day remain both anonymous and baseless, that he was stealing NASA data. There was no evidence that this was the case, and the charges were dropped. Even the charge of downloading pornography on a NASA network was not proven since the computer was his personal property. Having been arrested and thrown in jail on trumped-up charged based on public allegations by a powerful Congressman, he was offered the opportunity to plead guilty to a “fig leaf” charge and leave the country. With this sort of introduction to American justice, what would you do in his place?
I’m not sure which is worse in Congress; the legislators who take bribes from contractors to undermine NASA’s value, or those who, like Wolf, use NASA as a cudgel to satisfy their personal prejudices.