NASA has 12 new astronauts. Does Trump care?
Local // Gray Matters
Vernon Loeb June 15, 2017 Updated: June 15, 2017 12:43 p.m.
NASA astronaut Stan Love at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at Johnson Space Center, in 2014.
Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Staff
Three years ago, the Chronicle published a seven-part NASA series, "Adrift." It had been years since the folks down at the Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake had flown anyone further than the International Space Station, and there were no plans, or money, to go back to the Moon or beyond, despite all the talk of a future journey to Mars.
Now, a week after NASA introduced its latest astronaut class here, nothing has changed. "The space agency is still waiting for Pres. Donald Trump to nominate a NASA administrator and signal not just what he wants the U.S. to do in space but also how much he cares one way or the other—which he can demonstrate by pushing (or not) for the funding necessary for any grand plans," Clara Moskowitz writes in a new Scientific American piece, "NASA hires new astronauts — but where will they go?"
Some analysts and NASA watchers take it as a good sign that Vice President Mike Pence, who toured Johnson Space Center and welcomed the new astronauts, will head the National Space Council, Moskowitz writes.
"NASA will have the resources and support you need to continue to make history, to push the boundaries of human knowledge and advance American leadership to the boundless frontier of space." Pence said during his visit to Houston. "Under President Trump the United States will lead in space again."
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Copyright 2015: Houston Chronicle
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Skepticism abounds. Moskowitz reports:
"NASA right now is substantially adrift," says Robert Zubrin, an engineer and president of The Mars Society, an organization that advocates for human exploration of the Red Planet. "The Trump administration has not appointed a new NASA administrator, so nobody's in charge." Indications of the chief executive's attitude toward space are scant and conflicting.
There's that word again: adrift.
At least one of the new astronauts, Loral O'Hara, is a local woman. She grew up in Fort Bend County.
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Vernon Loeb is managing editor of the Houston Chronicle. He came to the newspaper from The Washington Post, where he was metro editor. Before that, he was an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times.
Vernon also spent a lot of years reporting. He was a city hall reporter and foreign correspondent at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and he covered the CIA and the Pentagon for The Washington Post. He's also written three books and run 66 marathons.
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