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President’s Message May, 2008
The ballistic trajectory return of the latest International Space Station crew on the Soyuz makes me think about what it is going to be like having all the manned spaceflight eggs in the Soyuz basket during the development of the Ares launch system after the shuttle has retired. I really think we need to have more than one option for getting people into space. I am afraid that space exploration detractors will use the gap in United States launch capability as ammunition to say we don’t need to have a manned program at all.
I have also heard that Presidential Candidate Senator Obama has said that he thinks the space program priorities need to be re-evaluated and some comments that sounded like he thought that robotic exploration was sufficient. The space-related questions never seem to be used in the Presidential debates, so it is probably going to be difficult to tell where each candidate stands on manned space flight and the space exploration initiative. I hope that NSS headquarters is working on educating all the candidates on the importance of space exploration to our Country. I plan to try to pursue this at the ISDC later in May.
This will be the last meeting before ISDC 2008 in Washington. I hope some of you are also able to attend the ISDC.
This month’s meeting falls on Mother’s Day. I will be there and I hope you are able to attend, too.
Ad Astra, Carol Johnson 4/30/08