W.H. launches Aldrin's defense

A day after three former astronauts derided President Obama’s space policy, the White House is firing back.

In an email sent Wednesday afternoon from the White House press office, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin applauded the president’s “boldness” and changes to NASA’s human spaceflight missions.

“I believe that this is the right program at the right time, and I hope that NASA and our dedicated space community will embrace this new direction as much as I do,” he said in a statement. “By so doing we can together continue to use space exploration to help drive prosperity and innovation right here on Earth.”

Sadly, Buzz went “Hollywood” long before “Dancing With the Stars.” He’s the only retired Air Force flag officer (that I know) who settled in Beverly Hills after his military and NASA days were over.

While Aldrin remains an active supporter of the GOP, but he’s a rarity among former astronauts, in that he has constantly (and eagerly) sought the limelight and seems to enjoy hanging out with the LA crowd—a sharp contrast to his Apollo 11 commmander, Neil Armstrong, who makes few public appearances and even fewer statements on public policy.

Additionally, Aldrin has been on record as opposing a return to the moon since 2003, saying NASA was returning to “old glories” rather than exploring new frontiers. Of course, that ignores the fact that the moon would be a more convenient launching point for long-distance space travel, and a natural place for colonization. But, since Aldrin’s position meshes with Obama, he’s become the administration’s favorite former moon walker. Never mind that virtually every other former astronaut disagrees with his position...

Don’t forget: General Yeager has a long-standing grudge against NASA. When they were considering candidates for the initial astronaut cadre, Yeager was rejected almost immediately, for a several of reasons.

First, despite his outstanding record as a combat pilot and test pilot, Yeager never earned a college diploma, while many of those selected by NASA had strong engineering backgrounds and many had graduate degrees. In other words, he didn’t fit the mold that NASA was trying to establish for its astronauts—a mold that still exists today.

Secondly, General Yeager is plain-spoken to a fault, and I’m sure that NASA was fearful of him rocking the boat, or saying something “inappropriate” in front of the wrong crowd. True, many of the early astronauts were hell-raisers and two-fisted drinkers, but they knew how to play the game, and turn on the charm when big wigs and reporters were around. Yeager would have never played that game, another reason that he was never a serious candidate for the astronaut cadre.

And finally, as detailed in “The Right Stuff,” Chuck Yeager had serious differences with NASA and its approach to space flight. While Yeager and the other test pilots at Edwards were flying X-craft to the edge of space, the Mercury astronauts were essentially along for the ride, their craft flown largely by computers and controllers on the ground. Chuck Yeager referred to them (famously) as “spam in a can.” From NASA’s perspective, that was the ultimate sin, one reason that General Yeager spent the last decade of his Air Force career flying operational B-57s and F-4s.

Chuck Yeager is a great American—a hero in every sense of the word. But you’ve got to remember that he’s had a standing feud with NASA for more than 50 years, and it won’t end until he makes that final flight.

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