{"id":1385,"date":"2010-04-13T20:46:31","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T01:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/?p=1385"},"modified":"2020-08-17T17:57:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T17:57:33","slug":"open-letter-to-president-obama-regarding-space-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/2010\/04\/13\/open-letter-to-president-obama-regarding-space-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to President Obama Regarding Space Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This open letter first appeared in wide circulation on the Orlando Sentinel’s blog and has since made the rounds elsewhere.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear President Obama;<\/p>\n

America is faced with the near-simultaneous ending of the Shuttle program and your recent budget proposal to cancel the Constellation program. This is wrong for our country for many reasons. We are very concerned about America ceding its hard earned global leadership in space technology to other nations. We are stunned that, in a time of economic crisis, this move will force as many as 30,000 irreplaceable engineers and managers out of the space industry. We see our human exploration program, one of the most inspirational tools to promote science, technology, engineering and math to our young people, being reduced to mediocrity. NASA\u2019s human space program has inspired awe and wonder in all ages by pursuing the American tradition of exploring the unknown. We strongly urge you to drop this misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

For those of us who have accepted the risk and dedicated a portion of our lives to the exploration of outer space, this is a terrible decision. Our experiences were made possible by the efforts of thousands who were similarly dedicated to the exploration of the last frontier. Success in this great national adventure was predicated on well defined programs, an unwavering national commitment, and an ambitious challenge. We understand there are risks involved in human space flight, but they are calculated risks for worthy goals, whose benefits greatly exceed those risks.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s greatness lies in her people: she will always have men and women willing to ride rockets into the heavens. America\u2019s challenge is to match their bravery and acceptance of risk with specific plans and goals worthy of their commitment. NASA must continue at the frontiers of human space exploration in order to develop the technology and set the standards of excellence that will enable commercial space ventures to eventually succeed. Canceling NASA\u2019s human space operations, after 50 years of unparalleled achievement, makes that objective impossible.<\/p>\n

One of the greatest fears of any generation is not leaving things better for the young people of the next. In the area of human space flight, we are about to realize that fear; your NASA budget proposal raises more questions about our future in space than it answers.<\/p>\n

Too many men and women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to achieve America\u2019s preeminence in space, only to see that effort needlessly thrown away. We urge you to demonstrate the vision and determination necessary to keep our nation at the forefront of human space exploration with ambitious goals and the proper resources to see them through. This is not the time to abandon the promise of the space frontier for a lack of will or an unwillingness to pay the price.<\/p>\n

Sincerely, in hopes of continued American leadership in human space exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nWalter Cunningham
\nApollo 7<\/p>\n

Chris Kraft
\nPast Director JSC<\/p>\n

Jack Lousma
\nSkylab 3, STS 3<\/p>\n

Vance Brand
\nApollo-Soyuz, STS-5,
\nSTS-41B, STS-35<\/p>\n

Bob Crippen
\nSTS-1, STS-7,
\nSTS-41C, STS-41G
\nPast Director KSC<\/p>\n

Michael D. Griffin
\nPast NASA Administrator<\/p>\n

Ed Gibson
\nSkylab 4<\/p>\n

Jim Kennedy
\nPast Director KSC<\/p>\n

Alan Bean
\nApollo 12, Skylab 3<\/p>\n

Alfred M. Worden
\nApollo 15<\/p>\n

Scott Carpenter
\nMercury Astronaut<\/p>\n

Glynn Lunney
\nGemini-Apollo Flight Director<\/p>\n

Jim McDivitt
\nGemini 4, Apollo 9
\nApollo Spacecraft Program Manager<\/p>\n

Gene Kranz
\nGemini-Apollo Flight Director
\nPast Director NASA Mission Ops.\n<\/td>\n

\nJoe Kerwin
\nSkylab 2<\/p>\n

Fred Haise
\nApollo 13,
\nShuttle Landing Tests<\/p>\n

Gerald Carr
\nSkylab 4<\/p>\n

Jim Lovell
\nGemini 7, Gemini 12,
\nApollo 8, Apollo 13<\/p>\n

Jake Garn
\nSTS-51D,
\nU.S. Senator<\/p>\n

Charlie Duke
\nApollo 16<\/p>\n

Bruce McCandless
\nSTS-41B, STS-31<\/p>\n

Frank Borman
\nGemini 7, Apollo 8<\/p>\n

Paul Weitz
\nSkylab 2, STS-6<\/p>\n

George Mueller
\nPast Associate Administrator
\nFor Manned Space Flight<\/p>\n

Harrison Schmitt
\nApollo 17,
\nU.S. Senator<\/p>\n

Gene Cernan
\nGemini 9, Apollo 10,
\nApollo 17<\/p>\n

Dick Gordon
\nGemini 11, Apollo 12\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This open letter first appeared in wide circulation on the Orlando Sentinel’s blog and has since made the rounds elsewhere. Dear President Obama; America is faced with the near-simultaneous ending of the Shuttle program and your recent budget proposal to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5467,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions\/5467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}