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Astronaut touts space at Republican convention

American astronaut Eileen Collins spoke last night at the Republican convention, calling for a renewal of the American space effort.

Her remarks were very short, essentially calling for an end to the American reliance on the Russians to get our astronauts into space. Her speech also differed from her prepared remarks in that she left out the part where she specifically endorsed Donald Trump.

According to a transcript of her prepared remarks provided by the GOP Convention to Syracuse University (her alma mater) and posted on the university’s website, however, the ending was supposed to be “We need leadership that will make America first again. That leader is Donald Trump. Thank you and God bless the United States of America.” Thus, although she did not read the line endorsing Trump, she did use his slogan “make America great again” instead of “make America first again” as in the prepared remarks.

The press will make a big deal about this, but I suspect that when it came time to say the words, Collins’ decades of training at NASA, where astronauts as government workers are specifically forbidden by the Hatch Act from lobbying for specific political candidates, took over. She clearly was supporting Trump. Habits just made it hard for her to become political, even though she is now retired from NASA.

What is important is that both she and Ted Cruz in their convention remarks both invoked the need for a vibrant American space effort, but both were vague about how to do it. Combining that with Trump’s already noted position, that we need a space effort but we also have to find ways to do this efficiently because the government has bigger priorities, suggests to me once again that, should Trump win, SLS and Orion will die quickly while commercial space will get a boost.

On a personal note, I am hoping that my policy paper, Exploring Space in the 21st Century, due out in about a month and focused very much on this precise issue, will land on these politicians’ desks at exactly the right moment, and help convince them to make what I think are the right decisions.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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7 comments

  • Kirk

    In advance of her speech she stated, “My message is meant to NOT be political.”

    http://mashable.com/2016/07/20/astronaut-eileen-collins-republican-convention-speech/

    That would be consistent with not mentioning Mr. Trump by name.

  • Kirk

    ” … suggests to me once again that, should Trump win, SLS and Orion will die quickly while commercial space will get a boost.”

    RZ: Wouldn’t the Obama administration have killed these projects if they had the power to do so? What additional power would a Trump administration have?

  • Gerry M. Allen

    The speech pointedly ignored efforts by private industry in the space arena. Don’t fiscal conservatives want less NASAA and more Dragon?

  • Kirk asked: “Wouldn’t the Obama administration have killed these projects if they had the power to do so? What additional power would a Trump administration have?”

    Yes, that is exactly what the Obama administration would have done. In fact, it did try to kill it when Obama cancelled Constellation (illegally by the way).

    However, the differences between SLS/Orion and private space are very stark, as my policy paper will prove, and I think the overall political trends in both Congress and with Trump suggest that SLS/Orion will finally be recognized as unsustainable, both politically and economically, come the next administration. Moreover, I expect them to also finally recognize that they can get as much if not more political bang by supporting private space rather than the failed pork of SLS.

  • I don’t mind her not giving an explicit endorsement of Trump.

    What annoyed me is the news release by the RNC did include an endorsement of Trump:

    http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=49133

    I can’t believe they would have put that in without her approval.

    Bob Clark

  • Bob Clark: The reason the RNC’s press release included an endorsement of Trump by Eileen Collins is because she had agreed to give it. Her printed prepared speech included that endorsement. When she gave the speech she simply left the endorsement part out.

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