Ted Cruz Blames Obama For Rosetta UK Space Mission
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) along with officials at NASA headquarters expressed muted praise for the UKâsÂ historic Rosetta space mission success. âObama said an achievement like thisÂ would be our victory, but once again, his lofty language resulted in failure. He was way off the mark.â The Texas senatorÂ referred to Obamaâs 2010 pledge made toÂ NASAâs during a Kennedy Space Center speech in Florida, promising an asteroid probe project, similar to the success achieved this week by the United Kingdom. The Rosetta mission succeeded, for the first time in history, in executing a controlled landing of a space probe onto a moving target, monitored and controlled from more than 310 million miles from Earth. âThanks to Obamaâs massive budget cuts to NASA,â said Cruz, âthe inspiration our young people once held forÂ space exploration, science and math is now non-existent. Heâs set us back to the 1950s when we lost the space race to Russia. We are no longer movingÂ forward.â European Space Agency scientists jumped for joy when data received from the Philae probeÂ confirmed the spacecraftâsÂ landing on the surface of comet 67P. NASA spokesperson John Phillips said âOf course we congratulate our European colleagues.â Many scientists, physicists, and engineers decided to leave NASA and work in the UK when the once dominant NASA fell victim to democrat backed budget cutsÂ in 2013. âLeaving NASA and heading to Europe was a hard decision to make,â added Phillips. âMany of us started out at the space agency, but each year we had less and less budget to work with so we moved. Opportunities that areÂ better for research and space exploration now exist outside the United States. Itâs unfortunate but thatâs the reality.â Chiming in on the predicament faced by NASA, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said âIâve said this so many times I sound like a broken record â âleading from behind.â Obamaâs policies haveÂ gotten us into trouble all around the world, not only militarily, but educationally and technologically. What do we tell our kids now, go out and learn a trade? Even there, jobs are gone. Just look at the numbers. Itâs a disaster.â Whether the success now being enjoyed by European Space Agency scientists will spark renewed interest and investment into our US space program is doubtful. Said Sen. Cruz, âWe had our chance and ObamaÂ blew it. Congress tried hard to keep money in the program, but that wasnât on the Presidentâs agenda. He got what he wanted and all I keep thinking about is that old show when I was a kid: Lost In Space. But now thanks to Obama, itâs not just one family thatâs lost â itâs all the American people who are lost.â