Wednesday, September 16, 2009

'Kennedy or Nixon' moment - Griffin

David Shiga
New Scientist - Space

With NASA in a budget crisis, the US faces a historic choice between boosting human space exploration like President Kennedy did in the 1960s or confining astronauts to low-Earth orbit like President Nixon did a decade later, former NASA chief Mike Griffin told a congressional committee on Tuesday.

But while some members of Congress expressed support for a budget boost for the agency, it remains to be seen whether a majority will support such a plan.

Griffin, now a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, compared the situation to a choice between following in the footsteps of Kennedy, who spurred Congress to fund the Apollo moon programm, and Nixon, who later shut it down. He spoke at a hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology in Washington...

Read the summary, HERE.

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