NASA Vets Skeptical of Bush Plan

Jan. 15, 2004 -- -- The White House is calling for "a renewed spirit of discovery," and many veterans of the Space Age say they welcome it.

"Any astronaut, you scratch our skin and you'll find Mars blood flowing underneath," said Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who spent 20 years as an astronaut. "That's how much I care about it."

The president's plan calls for:

• A new-generation "Crew Exploration Vehicle," to start test flights around 2008.

• Astronauts returning to the moon between 2015 and 2020.

• Long-term stays on the moon (though not specifically a permanent base) to mine it for fuel and water, and to prepare for more ambitious flights.

• Astronauts going to Mars, perhaps in the 2020s.

To make all this happen, NASA would retire its remaining space shuttles by 2010 after they have finished launching the components of the International Space Station. The space station itself would essentially be handed off to the 15 other countries that took part in its creation; NASA would only use it for research that would help the flights to the moon and Mars become reality.

"We've undertaken space travel because the desire to explore and understand is part of our character," President Bush said in his announcement Wednesday.

Decades of Plans

Ever since the end of the Apollo lunar flights, scientists and engineers have lamented that the United States did not have a clear direction in space. The president noted that in the last 30 years, no astronaut has ventured more than 386 miles from the Earth's surface.

During those years, one commission after another has devised plans to send astronauts back to the moon and on to more ambitious destinations. The new plan borrows from them. The newly proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle has yet to be designed, but some ideas for it might come from a program called the Orbital Space Plane, which will now be canceled to make room for it.

Many NASA programs would be canceled to finance the new initiative, though it is not clear what they might be, beyond the shuttle and space station. The White House says the project would cost $12 billion in the first five years, $11 billion of which would come from the current NASA budget.

As a result, Bush's proposal was greeted with a mix of applause and deep anxiety at NASA's various centers in Texas, Florida, California and other states. Many were delighted to see the space program get a clear direction from the White House. But they wondered if other worthy research efforts would be canceled, and if Bush could actually make the project work.

"Yes, I am skeptical. But that isn't to say we shouldn't try," said Christopher Columbus Kraft. In the 1960s, he became almost legendary as a NASA manager who got Apollo to the moon. In the years since, he has seen grand visions come and go.

"You've got to show me the cash, you've got to show me the support and you've got to show me Congress is going to support the program," said Kraft.

Exploration for Its Own Sake

Neil deGrasse Tyson, a Princeton University astrophysicist who also directs New York's Hayden Planetarium, has a different take. He says the president may have a hard time selling his space plan as a voyage of exploration.

Tyson says history has shown that governments agree to pay for scientific efforts if they serve other purposes. He cites three: national defense, the promise of economic return and, in ancient times, glorification of a ruler or deity.

Remember, he says, that when President Kennedy sent astronauts to the moon, he was more interested in beating the Soviets than in conquering space. When Columbus sought financing to sail across the Atlantic, he promised Queen Isabella of Spain that he would bring back gold from India, not discover a New World.

Tyson says he hopes Congress will see the space initiative as an investment in the future.

"What am I going to do with my smart students? How am I going to lure them away from being investment bankers or lawyers? I can't! I don't have any draw," he said. "We weren't doing anything exciting in space."

Then he laughed. "We spend more on pizza than we do on exploring space," he said. "We can do this!"