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Mike Pence to headline Houston-area fundraiser for U.S. Rep. John Culberson, Texas Tribune (9 August)
“Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Texas later this month to help raise money for U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, amid a tough re-election fight. Pence will headline a fundraiser for Culberson on Aug. 23 in the Houston area, according to an invitation obtained by The Texas Tribune. The invitation for the breakfast event bills Pence as a “very special guest.”

Vice President Pence Talks Future Human Space Exploration at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, NASA (21 August)
“Vice President Mike Pence, with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, will visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Thursday, Aug. 23, to discuss the future of human space exploration and the agency’s plans to return to the Moon as a forerunner to future human missions to Mars.”
Keith’s note: So … did VP Pence decide to visit Texas to do the Culberson fundraiser – and then added the JSC visit – or vice versa? When was the Bridnestine visit to JSC added? This is his second visit to JSC for both Pence and Bridenstine whereas other NASA field centers have not yet been visited once.

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...

23 replies on “VP Pence Visits Texas For A Fund Raiser And A JSC Visit”

    1. Really? We’re talking about the merits of coffee at a government center and at a political fundraiser? I’m not sure about JSC, but at JPL, the coffee they sell at the cafeterias and the stand outside Van Karman isn’t bad. But the stuff they cater to meetings is vile. And I’ve never heard anything good about catering at political fundraisers.

      In terms of the Vice President’s priorities, I think it’s quite possible that it wasn’t a decision to go to one event and then adding on the other. It’s not surprising for someone like that to have a list of places to go and people to see, at some unspecified time in the next few months. Then someone looks over the list and notices it would be convenient to combine two or three items on the list into one trip.

      1. Bob was probably kidding, hopefully my humor detector is fully functional. I have had many cups of coffee in the JSC MCC at 2 am and the quality was of secondary importance over quick availability.

        1. I guess you are right. And drinking early morning JPL coffee is how I learned to drink just about anything (although I still prefer decent coffee to that stuff.)

        2. Yes, your detector is functional. I always brought my own coffee from home…and my RC Cola.

          Mountain Dew? Yuck. That had been my brother’s stand-by; breakfast for him for many years (may still be) was a cigarette and a Dew. Never cared for either, myself…

          1. It would be interesting to know how the trip was paid for, but that may be too complex for me to grasp.

  3. Maybe he is making a second visit to JSC cause they are still twiddling around with gateway instead of helping offer up a plan to get back to the surface of the moon in a timely manner (like end of second term).

    Maybe he will light a space exploration fire under their butts or threaten to turn human SpaceFlight over to the space force 🙂

    1. Or maybe getting Rep. Culberson to buy into using a FH for his Europa probe instead of the SLS.

      1. Wishful thinking. I personally don’t think Pence would spend any political capital fighting SLS.

        1. SLS isn’t going to get him to surface of the Moon by end of trump second term.

      1. But how many Vice-Presidents have ever visited the others? How many did VP Biden visit? If I recall VP Gore did visit Goddard, but it was to push his Triana (AKA DSCOVR) idea. I also recall VP Cheney visiting JPL to congratulate the Mars Rover teams. But usually the President/Vice-President focus on the big three.

        So really, in terms of politics, NASA Centers are like Star Trek TOS. You have the big three, all associated with human space flight, and then the others.

        1. Neither Biden, Gore or Cheney chaired the National Space Council. I think that would affect how much time a Vice President spends visiting NASA centers.

  5. Bridenstine has been to Langley. Pence has not, and I can’t imagine a reason for him to visit.

    1. Mr. Bridenstine has also visited Goddard. Not certain if anyone cares whether Pence visits or not.

    2. An significant difference is their jobs. Mr. Pence heads the space council; aeronautics isn’t his responsibility. Mr. Bridenstine runs NASA, and that actually does include aeronautics. Langley and Ames have traditionally focused on aeronautics. So it would make sense for Bridenstine to visit those center, and much less sense for Pence to do so.

  6. As usual… “No Bucks, No Buck Rogers.” How can going from ~$19 billion to ~$20 billion be considered “Historic Funding” in any way?

    And just another revamp of “Moon, Mars and Beyond” – nearly verbatim in his talk. This lack of clear, succinct, sustainable vision and direction will not change anything or move the ball forward anytime soon. 🙁

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