Lyndon LaRouche Fully Endorses Buzz Aldrin's Call for Funding NASA

PRESS RELEASE

Lyndon LaRouche Fully Endorses Buzz Aldrin's Call for Funding NASA

June 29, 2008 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC).

In an interview published today in London's Sunday Telegraph, Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon said he intends to lobby Barack Obama and John McCain to ensure they fund NASA's goal to establish a permanent base on the Moon and then send a manned mission to Mars. After the Space Shuttle makes its last flight in 2010, it will be five years before its replacement is ready. In that time U.S. astronauts will have to be flown to the Space Station on Russian vehicles.

Aldrin said: "To me it's abysmal that it has come to this: After 50 years of NASA, and after putting $100 billion into the Space Station, we can't get our own astronauts to our Space Station without relying on the Russians." His message to the next U.S. President is: "Retain the vision for space exploration. If we turn our backs on the vision again, we're going to have to live in a secondary positon in human space flight for the rest of the century. These are important issues for consideration by the potential leaders of our country. They're not welcome criticisms for the present heads of NASA." Aldrin continued: "All the Chinese have to do is fly around the Moon and back, and they'll appear to have won the return to the Moon with humans. They could put one person on the surface of the Moon for one day and he'd be a national hero."

He concluded: "The biggest benefit of Apollo was the inspiration it gave to a growing generation to get into science and aerospace. Are we inspiring the workforce now to work on things we need? No! We can do wonderful science on the Moon, and wonderful commercial things. Then we can pack up and move on to Mars."

Lyndon LaRouche today gave his full endorsement to Aldrin's statement. During his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President in 1984, Lyndon LaRouche prepared and aired a half-hour show on national network TV entitled "Woman on Mars."