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Sixteen Astronauts Say, 'Back to the Moon, Asteroids, Mars, and Beyond'

August 31, 2009 (LPAC)—Sixteen current and former U.S. astronauts published a call in the Houston Chronicle Aug. 29, for recognizing aggressive human exploration of space as a national imperative, and taking the U.S. space program "back out beyond low Earth orbit." The column is addressed to the Obama-commissioned review panel on the nation's space flight plans, known as the Augustine Committee for its chairman, retired aerospace executive Norman Augustine. That committee's review is soon to be made public by the White House, in an environment in which cuts by Obama to U.S. space objectives are feared.

The 16 astronauts write, "We urge this panel, along with the President, Congress, and the American people to consider that: [Human] Exploration must be recognized as a national imperative that sustains U.S. leadership in space; a significant increase in human space-flight safety should be accomplished under government leadership; we must leave low Earth orbit and explore destinations beyond....

"We recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of one of humankind's greatest achievements—the landing of people on the surface of the moon.... It is now time to move on and push the boundaries of human discovery beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon, asteroids, Mars and beyond."

The astronauts assert that America's space exploration program "has positively impacted the world perhaps more than any single national endeavor during the last half century." With each NASA achievement, "the interest of young people in pursuing a career in science and engineering spikes upward."

In terms of U.S. funding of this "national imperative," the astronauts contrast the JFK/Apollo-era 5% of GDP, to the current 0.5% of GDP. "Underfunding [has] undermined the cause of exploration, wasted resources and delayed the development of new space systems. This has led to an overall strain on political support and public investment. We can do better as a nation, and we must."

The astronauts contributing to the column are Jeff Ashby, Michael Bloomfield, Bob Crippen, Roger Crouch, Jan Davis, Brian Duffy, Jim Halsell, Steve Hawley, Rick Hieb, Scott Doc Horowitz, Bruce McCandless II, Don McMonagle, Pam Melroy, Charlie Precourt, Ken Reightler, and Kent Rominger.


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