Wednesday, October 13, 2010

NASA chief thanks his team for helping Chilean miners

NASA chief Charlie Bolden thanked the NASA team who applied lessons learned in the unforgiving isolation of space to aid the trapped Chilean miners, who are being slowly lifted to safety.

"On behalf of the entire NASA family, I want to ask that our heartfelt thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the courageous miners, their families and friends, and the dedicated people who have been working to safely reach those who are still trapped underground," Bolden said in a statement.

"I also want to express my personal thanks to the Americans who have assisted in this heroic effort, and specifically the NASA team that traveled to Chile in the early days of the crisis. For decades, the people of this agency have learned to live, work, and survive in the hostile environment of space. Our expertise in maintaining physiological and psychological health, and our technical and engineering experience in spacecraft design all proved to be valuable in a situation that is far from our traditional scope of work."

NASA sent employees with medical, engineering and psychological expertise to help the miners cope with their long confinement, and to work with the teams that built the Phoenix capsule bringing the miners to safety.

"I am proud of the people of this agency who were able to bring the experience of spaceflight down to Earth when it was needed most,' Bolden said.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least NASA is good something since the manned space program is being shut down!

Anonymous said...

Ironic that Bolden mentions "the experience of spaceflight" when he and his boss Obama are shutting down the manned space program!!!

Anonymous said...

Good job!!! Congratulations and Thank You for helping in the rescue efforts, etc. of the trapped miners in Chile.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." ~ Helen Keller

Anonymous said...

Since NASA is no longer in the manned space business, they have to find something else to do...why not work with miners?

Anonymous said...

Bush and Griffin shut down the Shuttle program in 2005 and cut off the logistics contracts and destroyed much of the tooling. Weren't you watching? When the Obama administration asked if it could be extended, Wayne Hale said it was two years too late.As for Constellation, Orion costs more to launch than Shuttle and carries only half the crew and a tenth the cargo. what practical benefits does it provide to America that are worth its cost?

Now Republicans, who claim to want want tax cuts and private enterprise, are bellyaching that Obama is cutting a huge government program and encouraging more efficient private industry. What taxpayers do they think will pay for it? How do you spell hypocrisy?

Apollo was canceled in 1974 because sending people to the moon in huge throwaway rockets was much too expensive to be of practical value. it still is.

Conor said...

Has this replaced reaching out to the Muslim world as NASA's main objective?

Anonymous said...

Good one, Conor...I had forgotten about that.

Whatsamatteru said...

"... Obama is cutting a huge government program and encouraging more efficient private industry. What taxpayers do they think will pay for it? How do you spell hypocrisy?
..."

Which is in direct contradiction to EVERYTHING else he is doing. Obama is pro-BIG government on everything else. So, why not for the Space Program? Beacause he, like all Leftists, think all things Space Research is a waste of money. Always have, always will. Afterall, Space Research is not a social program, is it?

So how do I spell hypocrisy? Hyprocisy. O-B-A-M-A. Hypocrisy.