NASA Administrator Optimistic On Future Of Human Space Travel

By Vanessa Remmers

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden expressed optimism on the future of human space travel Monday despite hearing frustration from members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on NASA delays on a long awaited space launch system.

After explaining the delay in terms of necessary cost estimates, Bolden outlined future goals in space programs including targeting an astroid by 2025, launching the space launch system and continuing the life of the international space station.

“We do have a program, we do have a plan, you have a given us a budget and I am confident that we are going to be able to execute it,” Bolden said.

Bolden’s confidence in future space exploration did not waver when the topic of sufficient funding arose.

“Some say that this final shuttle mission will mark the end of America’s fifty years of dominance in human space flight,” Bolden said. “As a former astronaut and the current NASA administrator, I’m here to tell you that American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half century because we have laid the foundation for success.”

Bolden’s insistence on continued human space exploration was met with criticism from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) after the California Republican questioned the program’s budget in a time of fiscal crisis.

“We can’t go to the moon until our folks can go to the grocery store,” Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) said, clarifying Rohrabacher’s argument that human space exploration should be sidelined in light of the national debt. “The economy is going to tell us when we can [continue human space exploration].”