Former space shuttle commander Eileen Collins spoke at the GOP presidential convention tonight arguing for a strong space program.
Advertisement
NASA astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman ever to pilot and command a space shuttle mission, poses for a photo in the leadup to the STS-93 flight of the shuttle Columbia, which launched in July 1999.
While Collins did not mention Trump’s name, she did invoke both the Trump campaign’s theme for the evening, “Make America First Again”, as well as the campaign’s overall slogan: “Make America Great Again”. It is only fitting that Collins speak on Wednesday because of her accomplishments made at NASA – making progress for women who want to go to space.
Business Insider’s Josh Barro pointed out that she included Trump’s endorsement in her planned remarks. “We need leadership that will make america’s space program first again. Yes. Believe me, as president, we will once again, make America first again!” That leader is Donald Trump. She supports the United States going to space.
At the lectern, she tweaked her words and said instead: ‘We need leadership that will ask Americans, Americans will ask again, ‘What’s next?’
What the Obama Administration did do was cancel Bush’s moon exploration initiative, known as Constellation, on the grounds that it was behind schedule and over-budget, and replacing it with a Mars-via-an-asteroid technology development program that doesn’t preclude lunar missions and also did not ended multibillion development programs to build the deep-space Orion capsule and a heavy-lift rocket. While Collins might not be the highlight of the night (I’m looking at you, Cruz and Pence) she’s still a pretty important person – and by that, I mean she’s a former astronaut with a litany of unbelievable accomplishments. Thank you for what you’re doing. “Nations that lead on the frontier lead in the world”.
The public-private partnerships between NASA, the Department of Defense, and commercial companies have given us technological progress that has reduced the cost of accessing space and extended America’s space leadership in the commercial, civil, and national security spheres. “Leadership that will inspire the next generation to have that same passion”.
Her speech will be preceded by a video about the anniversary of the moon landing, according to a report on the website Politico.
She talked about the US becoming the first country to land a man on the moon 47 years ago.
Advertisement
Colonel Collins logged 38 days 8 hours and 10 minutes in space. She retired from NASA in 2006.
