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The death of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, takes place in the shadow of the death of the space program. Last year Armstrong had called the dismantling of the space program under Obama, leaving behind a shadow space agency: “embarrassing and unacceptable”.
Armstrong had proposed not only future investments, but along with other astronauts had sensibly proposed retaining the space shuttle program until they were ready, instead of scrapping the shuttle program and distributing viable shuttles to museums. Armstrong was critical of the Bolden regime at NASA that had stripped the space agency of its best people and its ability to conduct manned space exploration or even reach the International Space Station without begging passage on Soviet Soyuz tubs.
“The reality that there is no flight requirement for a NASA pilot-astronaut for the foreseeable future is obvious and painful to all who have, justifiably, taken great pride in NASA’s wondrous space flight achievements during the past half century,” Armstrong concluded his testimony. “In space fight, we are in the process of exhausting alternatives. I am hopeful that, in the near future, we will be doing the right thing.”
If we ever do get around to doing the right thing, in space or on the ground, Neil Armstrong will not be around to see it. The famously reclusive astronaut passed away after being drawn out to make a final bid at reviving the space program. His final contribution may be that he joined the many voices warning of the decline of America. His final legacy may be determined by whether the American people choose to listen to some of his final words.
Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, the year that a young researcher watching the sky over Flagstaff, Arizona, discovered Pluto. By 2006, it was decided that Pluto was no longer a planet. By 2016 we may decided that Neil Armstrong never really walked on the moon and that walking on the moon is an assault on the lunar ecology.
Two years ago, Charles Bolden, the incompetent Obama appointee who has implemented his mission of killing America’s space program, declared that the agency’s chief goal was outreach to the Muslim world. This was not his original idea.
While visiting Egypt, Bolden told Al-Jazeera that Obama had given him three missions. “One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering,”
Space exploration was not on the list for a reason. Michael Griffin, Bolden’s predecessor, who had done much to rebuild NASA, only to have his work ruined by Obama’s affirmative action appointees, Charles Bolden and Lori Garver, said of those comments, “NASA … represents the best of America. Its purpose is not to inspire Muslims or any other cultural entity. If by doing great things, people are inspired, well then that’s wonderful. If you get it in the wrong order … it becomes an empty shell… That is exactly what is in danger of happening.”
NASA, like the rest of American exceptionalism, has become that empty shell in the throes of Obama’s Post-American national order. It exists to make Muslim boys feel good about imaginary Muslim inventions and to provide jobs to Russian engineers. In the last week NASA premiered a new song from one of Obama’s favorite musicians, will.i.am and demonstrated a new “green” alternative to existing rocket fuels.
In a memo for NASA’s OEOD, Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, Charles Bolden declared that, “Diversity and inclusion are integral to mission success at NASA”. Because how can we possibly reach the stars unless there are mandated diversity targets among the launch crews and the conflict management specialists?
“As NASA’s Diversity and Inclusion Champion,” Bolden wrote,”I belicve it is incumbent on every member of the NASA community to advocate for promote, and most importantly, practice the principles of diversity and inclusion in everything that we do.”
