NASA Was Closed. Who Knew?
With three words, President Trump fortifies a flawed perception about NASA, Ars Technica
“Fresh off an appearance at a National Space Council meeting Monday, space was evidently on his mind when President Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday night. “Our beautiful ancestors won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and put a man on the face of the Moon,” he told his adulatory crowd. “And I think you saw the other day, we’re reopening NASA. We’re going to be going to space.” President Trump makes news at Space Council meeting by going off script. The crowd responded by chanting, “Space Force! Space Force!”
If I had a nickel for everyone who asked me what I was going to do now that NASA has been shut down (after the last shuttle flight), I’d at least be able to buy a cappuccino at Starbuck’s.
It hasn’t happened to me in a few years now, but in 2010-2014 I got a lot of “wait, I thought Obama closed down NASA?” from misinformed people. There’s still a persistent misconception that Obama cancelled the space shuttle, and a persistent lie that he did it to focus the agency’s funds on Islamic outreach.
Someone tell President Trump that we’ve had a continuous presence on the International Space Station since Expedition 1 docked in November 2000. To say nothing of all of the uncrewed missions which have been launched over that same time span.
Unless NASA is launching people, many people think they don’t exist…or at least don’t have a human space-flight program. I tell them…
The ISS flies in space.
NASA has humans on board.
Thus, NASA has a Human Space Flight Program.
But NASA doesn’t have a visible human spaceflight program. At not visible enough for most people to notice. Let’s face it, watching someone work in a laboratory is boring. And much of the work itself, if done well, is boring and repetitive. It isn’t like a movie where someone fiddles around with the equipment for a minute, says, “Eureka!” and makes a big discovery. Despite having astronauts on ISS, when was the last time they did anything that would make the front page? I know that’s unfair, that’s what many people base their opinions on; if they don’t hear about it, it doesn’t exist.
So true, and it is jus not NASA. My students were basically unaware about what Jeff Bezos is doing a few hours from here at his ranch or what SpaceX is doing. Indeed, it wasn’t until Elon Musk made headlines by launching his roadster into space that most folks outside the space community were even aware SpaceX existed.
That’s correct, but that boring stuff is right where the rubber meets the road as far as value.
I didn’t mention NASA’s robotic spaceflight program either…where they lead the world. The Curiosity Rover landing and the New Horizon’s Pluto flyby both come to mind and although they might not have hit the headlines, they were on prime time news. Even with those the more visible, less geeky stuff pales in actual importance to the science being done behind the scenes.
BTW, ISS astronauts do very visible and interesting STEM broadcast stuff all the time.
WE (you and me) just need to do a better job of making the geeky stuff that NASA does more interesting and relevant to the masses.
Ah, a space force. Let’s all use thumbed and forefinger to make space goggles, and sing, “Up in the sky, junior birdmen!”
I heard the new space force has nifty red shirt designs.