NASA Is Not A Jobs Program

Regarding "Save the ISS" (Sunday page B15), while this editorial is well-meaning, the conclusion that the ISS needs to be funded so that Houston doesn't lose jobs is part of the reason NASA is in trouble in the first place.  NASA is not a jobs program, it is a space exploration program, and while it is true that lack of adequate funding for NASA is a problem, the real challenge is that NASA has nothing resembling a plan.  In 2009, the Obama Administration fecklessly cancelled a decade of effort to establish a colony on the moon, and replaced it with - nothing.  It then cancelled the Space Shuttle and underfunded any replacement, leaving us at the mercy of the Russians for transporting our astronauts.

 

Those mistakes pale in comparison, though, with the bipartisan blunder we made twenty years ago when we handed control of the space station to the Russians by letting them provide the one indispensable module in the entire system.  The result has been the gross extortion now on display.  Russia's every move is designed to destroy the American space program, and throwing more money at the ISS simply makes that simpler.  We need to cut our losses, dump the ISS a few years early, and make the next system a 100% American controlled enterprise.  But before we do any of that, we need a plan.

 

We need to commit ourselves to the one objective that everyone can agree on, and that would be the cornerstone for space exploration for generations to come: planetary defense.  We've got the smarts and the technology to develop a system to protect the planet from a devastating meteor or comet strike.  We need to start now, and then let the rest of the world get on board.

 

Pete Smith

Houston, TX