PRESS RELEASE

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Former NASA Administrator Advises Trump: Return to the Moon, Cooperate with China, and Fund NASA To Do It

July 19, 2017 (EIRNS)—Following a speech in Huntsville, Alabama, on July 14, former NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden was interviewed by Lee Roop from al.com. A most interesting point was made regarding the Moon, where Bolden tossed aside his years of having to defend the Obama space program, which had removed manned lunar missions from the future, and instead proposed that such a mission should be carried out, and in cooperation with China: "We don’t need them to go to Mars right now," he said.

"We do need them to help get humans back on the surface of the Moon in this 10-year decade of time, the ’20s, when we really need to be making sure that the technology to take us to Mars is going to work."

By the end of his years at NASA, which stretched through both of Obama’s terms in office, Bolden saw every other space-faring nation in the world start planning manned lunar exploration missions. On cooperation with China, over the years, he became increasingly frustrated with the Congressional ban on cooperation, which he expressed in public, with no way to do anything about it.

Bolden’s advice to the President was blunt.

"Everybody likes space," he said, but "put your money where your mouth is. If you want to know what’s important to you, look at the budget." He also advised that former Huntsville Marshall Space Flight Center Director, Robert Lightfoot, who has been Acting Administrator, be appointed to the position, so that NASA has the leadership it needs to accomplish the task.