The shuttle could never do what the agency tried to make it do, and so they traded off safety. I don't blame the managers; they were presented with an impossible job.

NASA is plodding along doing what it's been doing for decades, ... Astronauts have been flying up there for 17-18 years, and it's hard to see what they've accomplished.

in a budget crisis of its own making.

There is no question in my mind that it would be best policy to say forget it,

We can't afford it. It's going to cost much more than this 5 percent increment in the NASA budget that they're talking about,

It's probably harmless, ... but it trivializes the space program. It seems as if they've got nothing better to do than send up an old, outdated senator.