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Forum:	Free Space
Topic:	Vice President Pence visit to Kennedy (7.6.17)

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cozmosis22: [B]The Vice President's statement about America leading the way in space once again received the loudest applause of the entire speech. The people assembled there in the VAB knew exactly what he meant. It is kind of hard to "lead the way" driving down the road if we don't have a car. The US has been a space passenger for the past six years but that's okay; those days are behind us now. VP Pence did not have to go to Florida to talk about the National Space Council. Indeed his speech did seem a bit like a pep rally for space exploration. Senators Nelson (D) and Rubio (R) were in attendance so it was not a partisan campaign event. Looking back for a moment; the previous President [URL=http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/08/23/biden-on-space/]advocated[/URL] for re-establishing the National Space Council during the 2008 election season. That campaign promise was ignored and VP Biden never visited KSC after getting elected. Now is the time to move onward and outward.[/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="arial, helvetica">T O P I C     R E V I E W</font></CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">Robert Pearlman</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">NASA release <blockquote><font size="+0"><B>Vice President Pence to Visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center</B></font><P><div align="justify">Vice President Mike Pence will visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, July 6.<P>NASA Television and the agency's website will provide live coverage for parts of the visit starting at noon EDT with Air Force Two's arrival at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility runway, as well as a special address to the center's workforce at 12:50 p.m.<P>The Vice President will tour Kennedy and learn more about the center's work as a multi-user spaceport for commercial and government clients, as well as see the agency's progress toward launching from U.S. soil on spacecraft built by American companies, and traveling past the moon, and eventually on to Mars and beyond with the help of NASA's new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.</div></blockquote></FONT></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">Robert Pearlman</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">NASA video <BLOCKQUOTE><I>Vice President Mike Pence visited NASA's Kennedy Space Center and addressed employees at the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building.</I></BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cNb5e0lxGTQ?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Robert Pearlman

NASA photo release (Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)

Kennedy Space Center Bob Cabana, left, and NASA's Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, right, present Vice President Mike Pence with a framed plaque.
At the top is an illustration featuring NASA's efforts to explore Mars. Also included is the flag of the Vice President's home state of Indiana flown on the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services-10 flight in February and March this year.
On the back of the plaque are patches from each of Cabana's four space shuttle mission, STS-88, STS-53, STS-65, STS-41, and an inscription thanking the Vice President for his support of NASA:
Mr. Vice President, Thank you so much for taking time to see the amazing progress KSC has made to enable both government and commercial space operations to and from low Earth orbit and beyond! Thank you for your leadership and support!

oly

So I listened to the US Vice President speech at KSC and while it sounds inspirational and mentions the moon, Mars and other targets it does not give any specific dates, programs or commitment. It leave the crowd no wiser to what the policy is or when things may start moving.

perineau

We've heard the speech about going back to the moon and on to Mars many times before - Pence is just working the crowd as most politicians do!

Robert Pearlman

I don't think the speech was intended to be a policy address. Part of the reason the administration has said it is reconvening the National Space Council (with its first meeting to be held before the summer is out, as the Vice President said on Thursday) is to advise on what direction the nation's space efforts should take.

This was more of a campaign-style rally/address to the troops, though in this case, the "troops" were NASA's employees.

Robert Pearlman

While viewing Orion hardware in the Armstrong Operations and Checkout building, Vice President Pence was caught putting his hand where it probably shouldn't have been. (Photo: Reuters/Mike Brown)

(To be fair, with Bob Cabana right there, clearly Pence wasn't acting out of turn, but it still makes for a funny photo.)

Update: From NASA on Twitter, in reply to Pence poking fun at himself, "It was OK to touch the surface. Those are just day-to-day reminder signs. We were going to clean it anyway. It was an honor to host you!"

perineau

Nevertheless, Pence's address was just a collection of empty promises that we've all heard before about the future of NASA...

Robert Pearlman

Other than announcing that the National Space Council was going to meet by the end of the summer and that the United States would lead the world in space again (a somewhat empty assertion, as the United States hasn't ceded the lead since landing on the moon in 1969, as acknowledged by every other spacefaring country), he didn't actually make any new promises.

His pledge that Americans would return to the moon and put "boots on the face of Mars" are both in line with NASA's current policy, as set by the previous administration and Congress. Note that a "return to the moon" is not the same as saying landing on the moon; cis-lunar space has been part of NASA's plans for Orion for the past several years.

issman1

Let's give the previous NASA administrator credit for at least keeping Mars as the objective.

James913

As usual, you have to read the fine print...

Cozmosis22

The Vice President's statement about America leading the way in space once again received the loudest applause of the entire speech. The people assembled there in the VAB knew exactly what he meant.

It is kind of hard to "lead the way" driving down the road if we don't have a car. The US has been a space passenger for the past six years but that's okay; those days are behind us now.

VP Pence did not have to go to Florida to talk about the National Space Council. Indeed his speech did seem a bit like a pep rally for space exploration. Senators Nelson (D) and Rubio (R) were in attendance so it was not a partisan campaign event.

Looking back for a moment; the previous President advocated for re-establishing the National Space Council during the 2008 election season. That campaign promise was ignored and VP Biden never visited KSC after getting elected. Now is the time to move onward and outward.

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