How Does Charlie Do It?

I don't know how Charlie, who "officially" runs NASA, manages to keep his sanity. I've almost gone crazy and I live in Huntsville, Alabama and don't have to see or talk to his Deputy, who has her own side-kick in the form of NASA's CFO, every day. Nor do I have to say nonsensical things that I know are borderline idiotic just to keep my job from falling into someone else's hands, a someone who dearly would love to have my job. For his service as NASA Administrator under Obama and his Administration's special appointees at NASA, Charlie should be awarded the Medal of Freedom, given lifetime disability, and a free Segway. Oh, and lifetime privileges at Pebble Beach.

The last Shuttle mission, STS-135, is ongoing and Atlantis, its orbiter, has now docked with the International Space Station. Bravo performance by the crew. Not so much for NASA's D.A., who refused to take questions when introducing the Orion MPCV spacecraft at a briefing held at Kennedy Space Center the day before the launch of STS-135. 

Not to worry--her acolytes, including a good number of so-called "space" blogs, are covering her back. 

But back to the real NASA.

Yes, it is true that the House and the Senate were unpersuaded to support the President's, really Lori's and John Holdren's, desire to end our space program and instead resurrected Orion and Ares V. And yes, those two programs were well funded for their first fiscal year. A logical person might be forgiven in assuming that the support of both the Orion and Ares V by very large, bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress would force a recalibration by the President and Ms. Garver. Quite the opposite. Which is why I've been too busy to write.