WASHINGTON — Newly appointed NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, during the question-and-answer portion of his policy talk January 5, offered this perspective:
“If you told me in 1980, when I was a young astronaut candidate, that we wouldn’t be back on the moon today, I would have told you you were smoking dope.”
Bolden said he would emphasize collaborations with international partners as a way to pool money for projects big and small. Sending humans to Mars might still be a goal, but it would happen “very gradually,” he said.
Science News from the American Astronomical Society meeting: