Washington (CNN) – The space shuttle Atlantis cooled off after its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere but Texas Governor Rick Perry is white-hot about the Obama administration's approach to space exploration.
In a press release following the shuttle's Thursday morning return to the Kennedy Space Center Perry launched on the end of the shuttle program.
"With the final landing of the shuttle Atlantis and no indication of plans for future missions, this administration has set a significantly different milestone by shutting down our nation's legacy of leadership in human spaceflight and exploration, leaving American astronauts with no alternative but to hitchhike into space," Perry said in a written statement.
Perry's home state is a big player in the space industry. Johnson Space Center is located just outside Houston and is the home to NASA's astronauts. The area employs thousands of workers in the aerospace industry.
With no current vehicle to get astronauts into space, the Lone Star Republican continued his criticism. "The Obama Administration continues to lead federal agencies and programs astray, this time forcing NASA away from its original purpose of space exploration, and ignoring its groundbreaking past and enormous future potential. It is time to restore NASA to its core purpose of manned space exploration, and to define our vision for 21st Century space exploration, not in terms of what we cannot do, but instead in terms of what we will do." Perry said.
President Obama has addressed his commitment to the space program before.
"I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future," Obama told workers at the Kennedy Space Center in April, 2010, the very place where the program came to an end Thursday. "By the mid-2030s I believe we can send people to orbit Mars and bring them safely back to Earth," Obama said. Landing on Mars will follow, and "I expect to be around to see it," he said.
From CNN Politics
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Where ya gonna get the money? Oh, Guvment you say? The same guvment you hate? The same guvment you blast daily even tho they/we paid 75% of your fire-fighting expenses?
Oh - that Guvment.
wow! he believes that space exists!?
While I agree with him on defining NASA by what we can do, getting back to putting people in space and pushing our space boundaries, it's awfully ironic coming from Rick Perry, Mr. Small Government. I guess it's all the other (read: non-Texan) programs that should be cut.
Perry wants the federal money in TX but he doesn't want to raise any federal money, exactly how does that work Mr. Perry?
So privatization is good, with the exception of governement jobs in my state.
Didn't the Tea Party tell him that he is suppose to be against any spending! Oh wait big corporations make big money on the space program!! Maybe the Tea Party will call for the cutting EPA, FAA, FCC, CDC so we can have a few more launches!
Fiscal conservatives should remind Perry that ending the Space Shuttle Program will save tax payer's money and help in reducing the national deficit.
Wasn't it Bush and the Republican congress that defunded the space shuttle?
Maybe Rumsfield and the other advisers who have been home schooling Perry should have told him that it wasn't Obama who ended the shuttle program. I believe that occured during the Bush administration.
Give me more federal pork, sez lil ricky
We do so love those taxpayer handouts
Are all the Tea Baggers are this crazy?
Maybe Perry and the rest of the Republicans should have spoke up when Bush was bankrupting the country
IF I recall correctly, it was Bush that set about the end of the Shuttle program, Obama just followed the plan. Perhaps he should talk to his old buddy.
Apparently he forgot or didn't know that the shuttle program has been winding down for four years now, ever since fellow Texan George Bush ended the shuttle program in 2007. How typical.
Perry just wants something to gripe about. President Obama is so far ahead of Perry in the thinking ahead department that it's not funny. If this were a Republican president Perry would be all for it, pointing out how much money will be saved by shutting down the space program.
Wasn't it Perry who said Texas didn't want federal dollars? Wasn't he the guy that said Texas should secede from the union? What a difference a few billion fewer dollars makes? I guess Perry speaks with a forked tongue. Oh, I forgot! Perry is a republican; lies are common with them.
How does Gov. Perry (endorsed by no-tax Grover Norquist) propose to pay? Or is this another case of a no-tax Republican eschewing taxes, except those (on others) that specifically benefit him?
CUT SPENDING!! CUT SPENDING!! CUT SPENDING!!
Wait, no, only cut spending to things that don't affect ME...
I'm all for the space program too...Mr Perry are you willing to raise your taxes to pay for it? I live in Texas and this guy is such a jerk. Does he really think the country is ready for another Texas governor as president...don't think so. He would make Bush look like a scholar.
Republican's need to make up their minds....Don't Spend Money....Spend Money....Don't Spend Money ....Spend Money...
Newsflash, Mr. Perry. The space shuttle program was scheduled for termination by Mike Griffin under George W Bush. The successor program, known as Constellation, was at least 6 years behind schedule and billions over budget by the time Obama canceled it. That slippage occurred mainly on Bush's watch also. The replacement program calls on US corporations to innovate our way out of this predicament, and fosters competing companies in much the same vein as commercial aviation. The government-led program it replaces has demonstrated it could not meet the cost and schedule we want.
So exactly what is your alternative? Going back to the government-led option, and trying again?
Sorry, that is 450 million per launch. So our adding cost of one launch per year would raise research to about 2 billion per year.
Not sure what Perry's issue is with the end of the Space Shuttle. He can just gather a group of People and pray the Rapture takes place real soon. He will get a free ride into space.
Perry is for all-cuts budgets and hates the Federal Government, but now he wants to invest in NASA?? With what money since he doesn't want to ask ultra-wealthy people to pay their fair share of taxes? Oh, I suppose he will take the money from struggling middle class families like he does in Texas, then more people can slip slowly into poverty and the rest of the country will look like Texas which as the highest percentage of kids who do not graduate high school, the highest percentage of people without any health insurance, and the largest percentage of people who work for only minimum wage. That's the way things look when the GOP is in charge.
If Rick Perry wants to blame someone, he needs to blame fellow Republican and former Texas Governor George W Bush. Bush is the one who cut the NASA budget while he was in office. President Obama shares part of the blame because he let it stand.