Donna Shirley was the guest for this special Space Show program which aired originally on Friday, June 16, 2006. We began our two hour discussion with Ms. Shirley about the state of the NASA science budget and cuts within science programming to facilitate the VSE. As part of this discussion, Ms. Shirley explained the budget and science process given her JPL experience, the politics of these issues, and the constraints faced by Dr. Griffin and others. We spoke about cost overruns with the James Webb telescope, the ISS, and the Space Shuttle. Donna's historic perspective proved invaluable in this discussion. Ms. Shirley spoke about many of the barriers to furthering space commerce that are intrinsic to the system, from the way NASA selects projects to fund to ITAR. When specifically questioned about the science cuts, Ms. Shirley highlighted the conclusions from the National Research Council's "An Assessment of Balance in NASA's Science Programs." ( http://fermat.nap.edu/execsumm_pdf/11644 ) You will certainly find interesting the conclusions from this report. Ms. Shirley also discussed the environment and how space resources can be used for better environmental management. We also spoke about science and engineering education in the United States, at what grades must we intervene to improve this education for your children, and how best to intervene. We also discussed the contribution of science fiction to science and space, hard science fiction, and fantasy. Ms. Shirley went into some detail regarding the Shuttle and the ISS programs, launches, and the private sector. She is supportive of suborbital space access and tourism, is pro private space development, and as you will hear, had much to say and contribute to our effort to become space-faring and to develop and commercial space economy. You can contact Donna Shirley with additional comments and questions by emailing her through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. I will immediately forward to her all email I receive on her behalf.
Guest
The Space Show
